JUNIOR POPE CONFORMED DEAD BY BOAT ACCIDENT + OTHER INCIDENTS THAT OCCURRED IN NIGERIA

Lagos to London Airfare War + Nollywood Actor Junior Pope Dies in Boat Accident.

As always. Thank you all right now, let's take a look at what's trending. Unfortunately, we do start on a sad note where it was a tough wednesday for family friends, colleagues and fans of nollywood actor junior pope odon wo as we all grapple with the reality of the drowning incident which took place in anambra state the, talented movie star was initially said to have drowned while returning from a movie location with his colleagues in a boat when they fell into anam river in anambra state after a boat crash, he was then reported to have been revived and rushed to a shrine and then to a local hospital before being declared deceased a second and final time, while two bodies are said to have been recovered, while the search for three others will resume today. Now, before this incident, the actor had shared a video of himself on a boat without wearing a life jacket, praying frantically to arrive at his destination safely and I would just like to apologize for those images prior. That was of another incident that took place in lego state where search and rescue operations are underway near the third mainland bridge. After a tragic accident involving a commercial vehicle, two individuals fell into the lagos lagoon when the vehicle break the vehicle's brakes failed around 11:00 a.m. On wednesday emergency management officials have confirmed that marine police are leading the efforts to locate and recover the two adults. The accident comes shortly after the reopening of a third mainland bridge by the federal government on april 4th.

Following extensive repair, work authorities had set a speed limit of 80 km per hour on the bridge to ensure the safety of motorists. However, this tragic incident serves as a reminder of the ongoing challenges and risks associated with navigating lagos' bustling roadways, even amid celebratory occasions, sad to start on that note, but these are the developments um io. Let me start with you all right, um, very sad news. In fact, for john paul, that's his name and perhaps that's why he was um. His nickname was junior pope, john, paul ono um. Yesterday it was quite ay because he had posted a video of himself and complaining about the speed of the boat. And just very you know, emotionally almost on joker note saying that he was going to raise his children and that the the driver of the boat should slow down and then put that side by side. What happened in in in lagos, both of them speak to a lack of safety, health and safety procedures, as not just on our waterways, but also across different different areas, where we take a lot of things for granted, our hearts go out to his family members cuz. This is still very fresh, and so it it is unfortunate, but I'm hoping that it would then bring up conversations and for us to take action yesterday, I spoke about um, even the markets, when we have incessant fire outbreaks.

The fact that there ought to be proper training for personnels on no account talking about the waterways. Now should anyone go on the water without wearing a life jacket? There are more chances of survival. When that is in place. You cannot cross such a major river like this and not be strapped in or at least you have some sort of re enforcement in that area. So I, it's really sad our condolences to his family members, his three, his wife, three sons, the nollywood family, but, very importantly, I hope.

This will also provoke action that will begin to take health and safety very seriously in this nation. Absolutely so uh I I feel very sad for him and my condolences to his family gosh. Nobody wants to lose his life in such a way, but I think it's also indicative of what our society has become and I you sounded off on it. As regards safety, we don't even have a safety culture at all, probably only states like lagos because I remember I', had to use the waterways in lagos a lot and I see how they strictly enforce. I. Think the first problem here started from the the boat terminal. He shouldn't have gotten on that boat without you having reps of water transport services checking. What's it called on the boat? Also, there should be some level of weight balancing on the boat I, don't know how well that was checked.

Then what was the search and recovery level like I mean on our waters. We should constantly have people piring, I, think that's what the minister was talking about going across the waters from time to time and seeing if there's a mish up, so that people can go in there and it's not. Today, we've constantly had both m. We haven't had worse than that, and the question is what are we doing? It was just like the case of the fire where a television crew was capturing that and I got on tv and I thank god for the bravery of the journalist, but I'm also sad. She could have been killed where were crash helmets. While she was reporting, so even when we celebrate the burgery of the journalist for a site like that that you know it's fluid that fire had already gone into cement and it's already kick in the building, the basic level of protection should be a crash even as reported the area should be cordoned off so an area should be cordoned off, but you can also see that there was access to the area and god only knows how many people could scamper around.

So, except we have a safety culture, we're not going anywhere, and the question is what is safety safety? Is everything is life? There are a lot of people. The can't even consistently do a cpr. As we speak a lot of people, they don't even need to know how to if you have a fire today, there are lot of people that don't still understand that you, you spray the the the fire extinguisher at the base of the fire. We don't have fire drills, we don't I. Remember there was a time. I was at london's empire cra station and there was a fire drill. We don't have mass fire drills, like that, we don't even have a safety culture. We didn't even know about these things. A lot of people can't do an emich maneuver, so it's a national clarion call for eming the terms of safety in everything we do yet again. The sad pa of our country is that people die very avoidably. We could have avoided one too many of these deaths. Absolutely my comm, his family I think that the big issue here is that again, nollywood is having to mour it's not just about pope j. It's also about the other person that died. We sympathize we commiserate with the affected families. The lady, whose movie was being shot, has been called out that she did not make adequate provision for safety, but the truth of the matter is that we are completely a negligent country. We are negligent in every regard, either with regard to taking care of uh people who are physically challenged or persons who find themselves in any kind of situation. This is a stack reminder of how negligent we are as a country in some other parts of the world. People will not go onto on top of a river, whether it's anam, river or whatever river, is there a river in okay?

Well, you are from lego state, so there's o. So the thing is that look where just negligent. We don't take basic precautions in some other countries. You will not be allowed to go on top of a river without lifeguards, that's what they call them being on the coast. If anything happens, you will get help almost immediately. So this is the big issue about what has happened and then, of course, I was told there were three hospitals involved. They could not save anybody. There were no lifeguards anywhere, so here we are in niger. In the midst of life, we surrounded by death was first rushed to a shrine before the hospital. So so we surrounded by death. Oh, he was rushed to a shrine or to a church. They said one priest was trying to revive him. This is part of the problem that we have here. It's most unfortunate. He left behind three children, so we have a widow. We have children who have now become fatherless as a result of our negligence. Now the story on the 10 m, l, bridge well, I mean look, I wrote a piece on the 10 m: l bridge prison, the beauty and all that, and we had the minister of works just this morning now, since that bridge was uh completed, there was one uh uh bus that ran that almost fell into the river that one didn't go through. Then you have this. Second one now you know two people ended up in the river again, we don't have enough security. The minister of works was saying they are trying to put up a an observatory.

You know to monitor security and to address emergencies on that bridge. Well, that will help all right, but but maybe they should raise the bar, the reings. Yes, so that you know uh trucks, buses, don't just jump and then education. They have set a limit about speed limit on that bridge. Nobody enforces speed limit in nigeria, put a speed camera there and all these people. You know all these bus drivers and all these people there. One thing I see around the victoria island. Those people are unruly, nobody controls them. Okay, you say you want to man transportation, but you put people who are half m on onto the streets driving vehicles. They are jumping into the river. They are jumping into other vehicles. These are issues that the nigerian government also needs to look at in terms of public transportation. At other transport issues, let's look at air transport in our next story. Ceo of air pece alan ona has alleged that certain airlines are attempting to drive his company out of business by undercutting their prices for the lagos london route on march 30th, a air peace nigeria's flag carrier commenced its lagos london flight service.

Now the inaugural flight was widely celebrated by many nigerians on social media, who believe the cost of flight tickets to london would be reduced due to the presence of a nigerian carrier on the route. While reacting to the development on y during a television interview said, some foreign airlines are now advertising prices like $100, $35 and $350 for lagos to london flight tickets, stating that if successful nigerians would end up paying significantly more for flights. Well, let's take a look at some tweets uh concerning what is now being called a price war, ethiopia airlines has reduced its fair from 1.9 million naira to 680,000 to london.

This is 400,000 below what air piece was charging uh major airlines are deliberately underpricing now in order to force air peace out of the lagos to london route. What in air peace do these people? Why can't we have a healthy and peaceful competition? Now I know we touched on this earlier, uh drba, you know discussed it with rotus, drti I know you didn't get a chance to to share your comments on this price war? Is it a price war? What what is really going on in your thoughts? No, what is important is that you know airas uh, going to london going onto that route and driving down prices is in the best interest of nigerians. So, to the extent that a is helping us to secure national interest, we praise aace, we praise mr alan, look. It got to a point that that our m mamed airport, if he went there the place, was desolate. People could not travel again because they were being asked to pay for uh tickets in dollars. They were being asked to pay uh through their nose uh, you know to go abroad, so the impact that we have seen is that you know airace uh securing this access to the most lucrative route is helping many nigerians and I know. Many of you here would like to travel with aes at even a more subsidized rate. You know to go to london and see the king, so it's a welcome development. All of the other issues about isu and all of those things those are distractions. What is important is how uh airp is helping us, you know to satisfy customer interest and also to help the forex issue.

Yes, because that's another major fallout of what has been achieved, uh by ace I, think we should all be happy for it uh. The thing we should insist upon is government ensuring and enabling environment for businesses to thrive and for local investors. Uh, like like mr, who believes in nigeria like alang, who believes in nigeria like ton lumu, who believes in nigeria for them to be encouraged, like sam rab of b cement, who contin to invest in nigeria. To continue to be encouraged that is the point, in my view, absolutely now.

Well, we're going to move on to our final story as muslim continue to celebrate the end of ramadan and islamic cleric malam musello advised muslims during the salah celebration at the gumo praying ground in ki state cautioning against engaging in prohibited social activities. He emphasized that ramadan's purpose is to reinforce islamic principles and urge muslims to utilize their experiences to promote peace in their daily interactions. Bello strongly denounced muslim individuals who end up in bear parlor after prayers labeling such behavior as contrary to islam, well, yeah um, drinking alcohol, um for muslim faithfuls is considered haram and for some um, strict muslims, they wouldn't take alcohol. I. Think the bigger message here is the fact that um they're encouraging people to continue. So, let's not be hypocritical. Your lifestyle during the holy month of ramadan should be your culture. So beyond just drinking beer for those who um um adherance is also compassion. Giv. You know people are a bit more generous, they share their food during ramadan, and this was this sentiment was shared by a number of um leaders. The first lady mrsu said the same thing yesterday president ubu said the same thing: let us continue in the spirit of ramadan, not just in the holy month of ramadan, but it will make us better citizens. Perhaps our nation will finally be better if people are really true to the um to the to the tenants of their faith. But I don't understand this about stay away from be, palo, niger, m and all the other be companies they want to sell business.

So please don't let us demaret some other people, people in nigeria, besides in the spirit of celebration, though in the spirit of celebration, before we go, our very own rfi, of course, celebrated his birthday on monday, with lots of community charity work for the less privilege. Happy birthday really I'm! Really really. You know you like singing happy birthday to you. Happy happy birthday, dear happy, birthday to you. Are you I mar leave the marriage?

You see you see the the our community from zimbabwe, no, no, no, but but but but but the truth is I I mean I. Thank you all, but for me you know when will I marry uh? For me, it has to be about the right connections and the right connections as regards empowering and helping people. So so, when I find that right spark as regards a partner that will help me, you know change the world and empower a lot of people and lift them up. Then definitely I'll make that decision. Actually, there's a book titled I will marry when I want. I. Will not recommend it to you to you and I will recomend it to you there so, but the truth has to be said, is I'm really humbled about this and with many other things I do you know with ent the resurgo foundation and many uh things I? Do for a lot of people out there I think, to a large extent that if we truly have a heart for other people, then our society will not be where it is where it is today and and that's what I just want to encourage a lot of people just go out there, leave your life and think of others too I mean life would be a whole lot better, but thank you guys so much our implications continue today and tomorrow. Absolutely today is actually my producer. Oio k's, mom's, 71st birthday, so happy birthday of celebration. You know: does he provide implications? No I can do it on his behalf. I'll. Do it on okay implications, but congratulations mommy on your 71st birthday, but if mommy decides to send us implications, pur thank youbody and that's all on today's edition of the morning