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May 14, 2025

Police Rearrest Suspect Linked To Slain Anambra Lawmaker Justice Azuka

Police authorities in Anambra have successfully rearrested one of the fleeing suspects allegedly involved in the kidnapping and gruesome murder of the late Justice Azuka.

Azuka was a lawmaker representing Onitsha 1 Constituency in the Anambra State House of Assembly. He was reportedly kidnapped by gunmen on Dec. 24, 2024, while returning home at Ugwunapampa Road, Inland Town, Onitsha.

However, the Police and other sister security agencies later recovered his lifeless body on the Second Niger Bridge on February 6.

READ ALSO: Kidnapped Anambra Lawmaker Justice Azuka Found Dead

In a statement on Tuesday in Onitsha, the spokesman of Anambra State Police Command, Tochukwu Ikenga, confirmed the suspect’s rearrest.

Ikenga said he was arrested on May 7 following a painstaking and intelligence-led operation, after he was tracked across multiple states in Nigeria and neighbouring countries.

“The Anambra State Police Command wishes to inform the public that its operatives have successfully rearrested one Ikemefuna Ossai, a suspect in the kidnapping and gruesome murder of the late Justice Azuka, the distinguished Member representing Onitsha 1 Constituency in the Anambra State House of Assembly,” the statement read.

“This rearrest followed a painstaking and intelligence-led operation. The suspect, who had previously escaped custody, was tracked across multiple states within Nigeria and even into a neighbouring West African country.

“He was eventually apprehended on May 7, 2025, in Asaba, Delta State. Upon sighting the operatives, the suspect attempted to escape arrest but was swiftly subdued and sustained a gunshot wound to the leg in the process.”

Ikenga said the Police Command, in its continued commitment to transparency and accountability, has briefed relevant stakeholders, including the family of the late lawmaker and the leadership of the Anambra State House of Assembly.

“During the engagement, the Commissioner of Police acknowledged and expressed regret over the operational lapses that led to the suspect’s earlier escape.

“Further to this development, actionable intelligence obtained from the suspect is currently aiding ongoing operations. The Command has intensified efforts to apprehend the remaining fugitive and dismantle the criminal network responsible for this heinous crime.

May 14, 2025

River Island’s ‘classy’ £42 mini dress is ‘giving Odd Muse vibes’

By 234Radio in Entertainment News, News

River Island shoppers have compared the dress to one by a luxury brand – but there’s a big price difference

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River Island’s Brown Long Sleeve Square Neck Mini Dress(Image: River Island)

River Island shoppers are impressed with a “classy” dress that’s similar to one by a luxury brand. The retailer is well known for it’s on-trend fashion and accessories – and now there may be a new fan favourite on the shelves.

The high street retailer is selling the Long Sleeve Square Neck Mini Dress, priced at £42, in several colours; brown, black, cream polka dot, green, pink and red. It is available in sizes six to 22.

The dress features a square neckline, long sleeves, decorative pockets and a mini length. The retailer has noted online that shoppers should machine wash the product at a maximum 30°C, cool iron it and warns not to dry clean it.

READ MORE: Next shoppers praise ‘flattering’ £28 summer midi dress that ‘doesn’t crease’

READ MORE: Five cheap lipsticks ‘just like’ £29 Charlotte Tilbury Pillow Talk

For those keen to get their hands on a similar dress, there are a number of other retailers with options. Next stocks the Friends Like These Black Long Sleeve Square Neck Mini Dress for £36.

PrettyLittleThing also has the Chocolate Structured Woven Boat Neck Shift Dress on sale for £17.25, down from £32. New Look is selling the Black Pocket Detail Mini Dress for £27.99.

The River Island dress has gained attention on TikTok, with user Shileen (@shileen18) showing off the cream polka dot version in a recent clip. Her video was captioned: “Odd Muse vibes from @riverisland.”

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Elsewhere on TikTok, fashion page @thescousestylists shared a clip showcasing the dress in black during a trip to River Island. The post was captioned: “The perfect black dress from @riverisland” while text over it read: “This dress is giving Odd Muse vibes.”

In the video, the two ladies discussed the dress and how they’d style it. They added: “This is giving Odd Muse vibes. Oh, it is, yeah.”

They also said it would be a “nice option for the races” and dubbed it “classy” and ideal for night out, adding that it is “very Odd Muse.” They added that it is “such an elegant and classy dress.”

River Island’s Brown Long Sleeve Square Neck Mini Dress(Image: River Island)

Some shoppers have taken to review website TrustPilot to share their thoughts on River Island, particularly when it comes to large sizing, so it might be worth keeping this in mind when ordering online. One person said: “Lovely quality but not great sizing.”

Another customer shared: “The quality of most clothes I’ve tried on are good… but the sizing is HUGE!! I recently bought some new UK size 6 shorts, skirts, jeans and trousers and they slid down my hips and legs! They wouldn’t stay on my hips! The dress was huge on me too! I’ve had to return most of the order (kept the UK size 4 items).”

The dress is similar to luxury brand Odd Muse’s The Ultimate Muse Split Sleeve Mini Dress. The high end dress is priced at £135, while River Island’s comes in at £42.

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The two feature similar structured designs, with long sleeves, decorative pockets and cinched waist. However, the Odd Muse dress has a higher neckline and wider, flared sleeves than the River Island version.

May 14, 2025

Nick Knowles’ fiancée Katie enjoys wild hen party in ‘last fling before the ring’

By 234Radio in Entertainment News, News

BBC DIY SOS star, Nick Knowles’ fiancée, Katie Dadzie, pulled out all the stops for her hen party as she celebrated with pals, who were all wearing masks with Nick’s face on

Nick Knowles’ fiancée looked like she had the time of her life at her hen party(Image: Instagram)

Nick Knowles’ fiancée looked like she had the time of her life at her hen party in what she described was the “last fling before the ring”. The couple are getting ready to waltz down the aisle after Nick proposed in New Orleans two years ago.

Katie Dadzie, 34, who is 28 years younger than Nick, 62, met the BBC DIY SOS star in 2021 and shared a selection of snaps from her hen do ahead of the couple’s nuptials, in which her friends all donned masks with Nick’s face on. Captioning the carousel, the “last fling before the ring”, Katie posed up a storm in the photos wearing a white strapless mini dress and pearl earrings, with her brown locks styled into loose curls.

BBC DIY SOS star, Nick Knowles’ fiancée, Katie Dadzie, pulled out all the stops for her hen party (Image: Instagram)

Dancing alongside her friends at the Karma Sanctum Hotel in London, the mum-of-two could be seen in fits of laughter as her pals all posed with paper masks with Nick’s face on, recreating the hear no evil, speak no evil, see no evil emojis.

In another shot, Katie holds up her hand to show a jelly ring nestled above her engagement ring as she poses in front of a screen, which displays loved-up photos of her and Nick.

Speaking to the Mirror about the Katie’s hen party, Ellie Silk, Head of Events at GoHen.com, said: “Katie absolutely nailed the hen party brief – fun, glam and just the right amount of wild!”

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“And the Nick Knowles face masks? Iconic. DIY hen party accessory S.O.Yes!”

The lingerie and sex toy business owner, who also owns another company, Boobbix which sells ‘lactation products for breastfeeding mums’, met Nick at his youngest son’s playgroup.

Katie has two daughters from a previous relationship – while Strictly Come Dancing star, Nick, has four.

Her pals donned masks with Nick’s face on them, recreating this hilarious pose(Image: Instagram)

The presenter’s youngest son, Eddie, inadvertently served as the couple’s matchmaker – after dad Nick put him in the same playgroup as Katie’s little ones, when filming in the United States, according to reports.

Katie recently opened up about how she found the courage to pose for her lingerie brand, Boa Boa.

Admitting that she wasn’t initially keen to model her pieces, the mum-of-two owner thanked Nick for encouraging her to ‘represent her business proudly’.

Katie explained: “Nick said to me he thought that I should do it to represent the brand and the ethos that we have of being comfortable with yourself and loving the skin you’re in.” The mother of two added that she “doesn’t love the skin she’s in,” but explained to the Daily Mail that Nick reminded her to set an example of self acceptance.

Nick popped the question two years ago(Image: Instagram)

“For me to be in front of the camera the first time was absolutely hideous. I was cacking my pants, I was terrified,” Katie admitted, and revealed how it took a larger model encouraging her to be brave and take her dressing gown off during her first lingerie shoot.

While Katie is focusing on her own company, Nick has been busy in physio and rehab after undergoing gruelling surgery before Christmas.

Nick was on Strictly Come Dancing last year, and had to pull out of one of the live shows in October after injuring his knee during rehearsals. He became the third celebrity to leave the show, but admitted he “played down” his injuries before being voted out.

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Like this story? For more of the latest showbiz news and gossip, follow Mirror Celebs on TikTok, Snapchat, Instagram, Twitter, Facebook, YouTube and Threads.

READ MORE: Teeth whitening kit that made a 77-year-old’s smile ‘look amazing’ is 20% off

May 14, 2025

The man who saved Wembley Stadium

By 234Radio in News, Sports News

Getty Images

Paul Hayes

BBC Radio Norfolk

1 hour ago

When tens of thousands of fans fill Wembley Stadium for the two FA Cup finals this weekend, some may glance at a memorial bust on display in its lobby.

It is labelled ‘Arthur Elvin’, but few will likely recognise that name.

Yet had it not been for that enterprising young man, who went from running a tobacco kiosk on the site in 1924 to buying the stadium three years later, Wembley may never have become England’s national stadium.

“He saved it,” architectural historian Simon Inglis told a new BBC Sounds series about Elvin’s life. “It is entirely possible that it would have gone without him.”

A natural entrepreneur

Elvin’s work earned him a knighthood, but he came from humble beginnings.

Born and raised in a small terraced house in Norwich, on leaving school at 14 he started a series of odd jobs. After the jam factory they included in a boot factory, at a grocer’s and with a wine merchant.

He then moved to London to work for a soft-soap company.

But then World War One started and by the spring of 1918 he was in the Royal Air Force, flying as the observer in a two-man plane on reconnaissance missions.

In late June, 10 days before Elvin’s 19th birthday, the plane was shot down and he spent the rest of the war as a prisoner.

After the war he had a job running demolition work clearing up some of the military infrastructure left in France. By 1924, though, he was unemployed – but things were about to change quite dramatically for him.

An ex-officers’ association found him a job at the British Empire Exhibition.

This was a huge two-year propaganda extravaganza – designed to promote the idea of the British Empire to the public – and had led to new buildings, pavilions and even a stadium built on what had been parkland at Wembley, in north-west London.

Elvin’s job there was in a tobacco kiosk, but one shop was never going to be enough for this natural entrepreneur.

He gradually took over more kiosks – once telling a newspaper that he kept his shops open later than others and so “the money rolled in”.

Elvin’s ‘wily’ move

The exhibition’s organisers needed to sell off the buildings quickly.

With the profits from his tobacco kiosks and demolition experience from his previous job, Elvin soon set himself up to win contracts to dispose of some of the buildings.

“Elvin takes advantage of an economic reality,” cultural historian Dr Katy Layton-Jones said. “They have to flog some of this stuff off, to recoup some of the losses that they’ve made. And he’s quite wily in recognising that.”

The stadium itself might have gone at this stage, demolished and forgotten.

“It fell into the hands of [financial] speculators,” Inglis explained. “And even they really struggled to make sense of it, until Arthur Elvin came along with a vision.”

Elvin borrowed the £122,500 needed to purchase the stadium – which would be worth more than £6m in 2025 terms – from a financier named Jimmy White, who agreed to take repayments in instalments.

But White was heavily in debt and killed himself, and his creditors demanded full payment from Elvin of the entire sum.

So Elvin performed what Inglis describes as “a wonderful switch”.

Later claiming in an interview that it was “often easier to borrow £10,000 than £50”, Elvin persuaded a group of city investors to put up the money to create a company, with him in charge, to buy the stadium from him – not only paying off his debt, but also making himself a tidy profit in the process.

Olympic dreams

A view of the opening ceremony of the 1948 Olympics at Wembley Stadium

To make the stadium pay, Elvin could not rely solely on annual events like the FA Cup final. So he added regular sports such as greyhound racing and motorcycle speedway, which could be held several times a week.

These became Wembley’s bread-and-butter events, with Elvin describing in a BBC programme how even after the FA Cup final the goalposts would be taken down “before the last football fan had got off the ground” so the evening’s dog racing could be set up.

But that did not mean he did not also want other big national events – and international ones, too.

In 1939, after much lobbying from Elvin, the stadium was granted the 1944 Olympic Games. World War Two meant that never happened, but instead Elvin helped to get the Olympic movement back on track in 1948.

“He was performing at Wembley a role that in most other countries was performed by state institutions – of running the national stadium,” Inglis said. “And he was doing it as the boss of a private company.

“In 1948 Elvin effectively rescues the International Olympic Committee, and the British government to a certain extent, by saying ‘I’ll give you Wembley for free’.”

The 1948 Olympics were perhaps Elvin’s finest hour. He died within nine years, aged only 57.

Today he is mostly forgotten – apart from that one spot in the lobby at the modern stadium, where his memorial bust still stands watch.

Dr Layton-Jones, though, has a simple reason why Elvin’s is a life that has resonance even in the 21st century.

‘20,000 a huge amount of tickets’

Hearn said the fight would have to generate ticket sales in excess of 20,000 to make the outdoor option viable.

“The issue with going outside is, with the costs and everything, you’ve got to be doing more than 20,000 tickets to make the delta positive of doing it in an arena with 9,000. That’s a huge amount of tickets.

“Would it do 15 or 16,000? Probably. And don’t get me wrong, I love an outdoor show. But there’s also a lot to be said about going into an absolutely packed out arena.”

Category News

Police Rearrest Suspect Linked To Slain Anambra Lawmaker Justice Azuka

River Island’s ‘classy’ £42 mini dress is ‘giving Odd Muse vibes’

River Island shoppers have compared the dress to one by a luxury brand – but there’s a big price difference

Nick Knowles’ fiancée Katie enjoys wild hen party in ‘last fling before the ring’

BBC DIY SOS star, Nick Knowles’ fiancée, Katie Dadzie, pulled out all the stops for her hen party as she celebrated with pals, who were all wearing masks with Nick’s face on

The man who saved Wembley Stadium

A natural entrepreneur

Elvin’s ‘wily’ move

Olympic dreams

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