₦airaland Forum

National featherweight champion, Taiwo Agbaje, says he has resorted to collecting toll fee from drivers at the popular Ladipo market in Lagos to survive, in the wake of COVID-19, The PUNCH reports.

Agbaje, popularly known as Esepo, revealed that he lost millions of naira due to inactivity following the ban placed on boxing and other contact sports by the Federal Government.

Last month the FG lifted the ban on non-contact sports but insisted that contact sports like football, basketball, wrestling, boxing among others would remain banned until further notice.


Agbaje, winner of the Mojisola Ogunsanya Memorial Trophy for the best boxer at GOtv Boxing Night 20 last December, told our correspondent that he turned a toll collector, popularly known as agbero, at the Ladipo market in Oshodi – the biggest auto spare parts market in Lagos — to make ends meet following the harsh economic conditions due to lack of fights.

“Our government is just being unfair to us because other countries have resumed sporting activities,” Ajagbe told The PUNCH.


“I have lost money running into millions of naira because there are a lot of fights I should have attended and I was confident I would have won because I trained so hard for them.

“But look at me now, I don’t have money and can’t go into the ring. For now, I work at Ladipo market as agbero to collect money from drivers all because I want to survive.”

Other athletes also pleaded with the Federal Government to lift the ban to ease the hardships on sportspeople.

The family of Idris Ajibola, a mobile phone repairer, who died on Tuesday in a road crash after being chased by a vehicle belonging to Joint Task Force of the Osun State Government, has demanded the immediate prosecution of those who caused the accident.

The remains of Idris, who would have turned 21 on October 10, were interred in Ofatedo on Wednesday.

The deceased’s sister, Rukayat, who spoke to our correspondent during a visit to her residence in Ofatedo, said Idris just returned from Lagos when the incident happened.

She urged Governor Adegboyega Oyetola to ensure that the matter was not swept under the carpet, insisting that Idris committed no crime to warrant the chase of the vehicle conveying him and the crash that claimed his life.

According to her, Idris had joined his friends on a trip to Osogbo to buy bread shortly before his death.

The other occupants of the car, Raheem Abdullahi, Salam Adekunle and one other simply identified as Dayo, sustained injuries.

Meanwhile, youths in Ofatedo protesting the death of Idris barricaded the Ofatedo/Ido Osun Road on Wednesday.

As of 5.30pm when our correspondent left the scene, the youth set up bonfires on the road and prevented vehicles from passing to Ede through Ofatedo and resisted attempts by the police to clear the road.

The police fired teargas canisters at the protesters, who hurled stones at the cops.

Meanwhile, Oyetola has called on the leadership of the Nigeria Police Force to immediately launch an extensive investigation into the circumstances and events that led to the death of a citizen allegedly in the hands of operatives of the JTF in Osogbo.

A statement signed by the Commissioner for Information and Civic Orientation, Funke Egbemode, said the governor was deeply disturbed by Tuesday’s events and had asked the state police command to get to the root of the matter.

The statement read in part, “The tragic events that reportedly led to the death of one person on Tuesday evening was both sad and shocking and Governor Adegboyega Oyetola has ordered a full-scale investigation into the circumstances that led to it all.

“To the governor, all lives matter and nobody has a right under our laws to take a life summarily. While we appreciate the great job our law enforcement agencies are doing to keep Osun safe, the confusion and disruption to our peaceful state capital on Tuesday needs to be investigated.

“We hereby call on the Osun State Command of the Nigeria Police to launch a comprehensive investigation into this tragedy.”

Oyetola appealed to the families of the deceased and the injured not to take the law into their own hands by hurting more people or destroying property.

Addressing journalists in his office, the state Commissioner of Police, Mr Undie Adie, gave an assurance that the security operatives in the vehicles that caused the accident would be unmasked and brought to justice.

He called for calm, saying he had set up an investigating team to unravel the mystery behind what led to the crash.

Veteran Nollywood actress, Louisa Nwobodo has died shortly after collapsing in Enugu state.

It was gathered that Louisa Nwobodo had collapsed on Sunday, September 13, in her car at St. Mulumbas Catholic Church, New Haven, Enugu.

After the ugly incident, she was hurriedly taken to the hospital where she was confirmed dead by physicians.

Her remains have been deposited at the morgue pending the conclusion of her burial arrangement. She was 78.
Before her death, she has featured in many Nigerian epic movies like Johnbull and RoseKate among others, hence, carving a name for herself in the industry.

May her soul rest in peace!!!

THE Senate on Tuesday reviewed the nation’s fight against the COVID-19 pandemic and submitted that the European style adopted by the Presidential Task Force, which is coordinating the exercise, was killing Nigeria’s economy.

But the National Coordinator of the PTF, Dr Sani Aliyu, said poverty was the strongest weapon used in Nigeria to fight the pandemic.

Both parties spoke at an interactive session between the Joint Senate Committee on Health and Aviation, members of the PTF and other stakeholders in the Aviation and Health sectors.


Speaking on the occasion, the Chairman, Senate Committee on Aviation, Senator Smart Adeyemi, admitted that COVID-19 was real, but that it was not potent in Nigeria and many African countries.

Adeyemi said based on the reality on the ground, it is wrong for stakeholders in the country to be “swallowing hook line and sinker, measures being adopted to fight it in Europe, America, China and other foreign countries.”

He said, “There is something in us as Africans that is not in them in Europe and America, which made COVID-19 not to be disastrous here as it was there.


“In the light of this, measures that are detrimental to the livelihood and well-being of Nigerians should be avoided, so as not to kill the nation’s economy.”

Adeyemi said the measure was detrimental to an average Nigerian who was being forced to pay N75, 000 for such tests.

He said, “The amount is too high, it should be brought down and public health Institutions laboratories should be equipped to carry out the tests.”



In her contribution, Senator Biodun Olujimi tackled the Minister of Health, Dr Osagie Ehanire, and the PTF National Coordinator, Aliyu on the relevance of face masks in Nigeria based on realities on the ground.

She later asked the PTF National Coordinator, reasons behind the success story in Nigeria.

Aliyu responded by saying that the three reasons already identified “are poverty, demography and the aggressive nature of African countries against the pandemic.”