Nollywood actress, Lola Alao, has debunked the allegation that the family of the late actress, Aisha Abimbola, popularly known as Omoge Campus, needs the financial support of the public to bury her.

Alao, in a video shared on the Instagram page of fellow actress, Ronke Ojo-Anthony, popularly called Ronke Oshodi Oke, said that the late actress suffered from breast cancer and didn’t make her terminal condition public because she was a private person.

She also said that the actress was a Canadian citizen, and that the country bore the cost of her medical treatment.

Alao, who said she was speaking on behalf of the deceased’s family, asked the public to ignore anyone soliciting for funds for the burial of the late actress.

She said, “We do not need any support from anyone.”

Abimbola died on Tuesday, leaving behind two children, siblings, and a parent.

Nollywood actress, Aisha Abimbola, popularly known as Omoge Campus, has died.

She reportedly died in a Canadian hospital. The cause of death was still speculative as at he time of filing this report.

Her colleague, Bisola Badmus, broke the news of her death on her Instagram page; while ace actor, Saheed Balogun, also confirmed it to our correspondent on the phone on Wednesday morning.

See Bisola Badmus’ IG post announcing the death:

Other colleagues of the deceased like Ronke Odusanya, Biodun Okeowo, and Odunlade Adekola, have expressed shock over the loss of their colleague.

Wizkid, Davido and Simi were the biggest winners at the 2018 Headies awards which took place on Saturday.

Wizkid won two solo categories and shared two other categories with Tiwa Savage and Daps for best collaboration and best video respectively.

Davido won three awards including artiste of the year and song of the year while Simi, who also took home three plaques, won album of the year and recording of the year.

Following closely on their trail in awards haul was MI Abaga, who took home two plaques at the glamorous event while Mayorkun won the highly coveted next rated award.

Here is the full list of winners:

Lyricist on the roll: MI Abaga

Best Pop Single – Davido (IF)

Rookie of the year: Teni

Best R&B Single: Simi (Smile for me)

Best Street Hop Artist – Small Doctor (Penalty)

Best Rap Single: MI Abaga (You rappers should fix up your lives)

Best performer: Yemi Alade

Producer of the Year: Kiddominant (Fall, Mama)

Best collabo: Tiwa Savage and Wizkid (Malo)

Best reggae/dancehall single: 2baba (Holy Holy)

Recording of the year: Simi (Joromi)

Hip Hop World Revelation: Reekado Banks

Next Rated: Mayorkun

Best alternative song: Fun mi Lowo Mi (Aramide ft Sound Sultan)

African artiste of the year: (Nasty C)

Viewers Choice: Wizkid (Come Closer)

Best music video: Wizkid’s Come Closer (Daps)

Best female vocal performance: Omwaumi (Butterflies)

Best male vocal performance: Praiz (Folashade)

Special recognition award: Kafayat Shafau Ameh (Kaffy)

Hall of fame: Chris Ubosi

Best R&B/pop album: Wizkid (Sounds from the Other Side)

Best rap album: Reminisce (El Hadji)

Song of the year: Davido (IF)

Album of the year: Simi (Simisola)

Artiste of the year: (Davido)

U.S. comedian Bill Cosby is to be placed under house arrest following his conviction on three counts of aggravated indecent assault, a judge ruled.

According to court documents, Judge Steven O’Neill also ordered that the 80-year-old wear a GPS monitor.

The bail restrictions clarified by O’Neill say Cosby may not leave his home in Cheltenham, Pennsylvania except for the purposes of medical treatment or consultation with his legal counsel and only with prior consent from his probation officer.

Any such appointments are limited to the county in which he lives and several adjoining counties.

A jury in Norristown, Pennsylvania found the entertainer guilty of aggravated indecent assault on Thursday.

Cosby could face a long prison sentence, but the date of his sentencing has yet to be confirmed. It is expected by early July.

A US lawyer said Cosby might not end up in prison. “He could end up never serving any time,” Los Angeles defence attorney Brian Claypool told People magazine.

“The appeals process could drag on for years. He’ll be on house arrest for several years — probably five,” Claypool added.

“He has a good shot at posting an appellate bond, and then he’ll be out on house arrest, which is basically what he’s on now,” Claypool explained.

“It could take a couple of years — the appeal — and they will go all the way to the state supreme court, and I think he’ll be on house arrest the entire time.

“He had a hung jury on the first trial and that will play into whether or not he goes home during as they appeal,” the legal expert asserted.

The actor’s lead lawyer has indicated Cosby will appeal. “The fight is not over,” attorney Tom Mesereau said after the verdict.

The trial that ended Thursday was the second of the Cosby Show star on charges that he drugged and sexually assaulting Andrea Constand in 2004.

The first trial on the same charges ended with a mistrial in 2017 after the jury was unable to reach a decision after days of deliberations.

Thursday’s guilty verdict refers solely to accusations from Constand, a former employee at Temple University in Philadelphia, Cosby’s alma mater.

Constand accused Cosby of giving her pills and sexually assaulting her as she drifted in and out of consciousness.

Cosby’s legal team argued during the trial that Constand was motivated by money, citing her acceptance of a settlement with the actor.

The prosecution, meanwhile, said the payment was evidence of Cosby’s guilt.

Cosby’s biggest success was the television sitcom “The Cosby Show,” which ran from 1984 to 1992, in which he played obstetrician Cliff Huxtable, the wise and loveable patriarch of an affluent black family in New York.

American Pop singer Mariah Carey has revealed that she suffers from bipolar disorder.

She was diagnosed in 2001 but had only recently been taking medication.
Carey told People magazine in an interview on Wednesday that she got the diagnosis when she was hospitalised, following an emotional and physical breakdown around the time of her critically panned movie “Glitter” in 2001.
She said she did not want to believe it and only sought treatment recently.
“I lived in denial and isolation and in constant fear someone would expose me,” Carey told the celebrity magazine.
“It was too heavy a burden to carry and I simply couldn’t do that anymore. I sought and received treatment, I put positive people around me and I got back to doing what I love — writing songs and making music.”

Carey, one of the best-selling music artists in the world with 200 million records sold and hits like “We Belong Together,” said she was taking medication for the bipolar II form of the disorder, which is marked by less severe mood swings between depression and hyperactivity.

“For a long time I thought I had a severe sleep disorder,” she said.

“But it wasn’t normal insomnia and I wasn’t lying awake counting sheep. I was working and working and working. … I was irritable and in constant fear of letting people down. It turns out that I was experiencing a form of mania. Eventually I would just hit a wall,” the singer told the magazine.

Carey came forward after a roller-coaster few years that included her divorce from comedian Nick Cannon, with whom she has six-year-old twins, and her short-lived but high-profile 2016 engagement to Australian billionaire businessman, James Packer.

She said she is taking medication that “is not making me feel too tired or sluggish” and is working on a new album due out later this year.

“I’m just in a really good place right now, where I’m comfortable discussing my struggles with bipolar II disorder. I’m hopeful we can get to a place where the stigma is lifted from people going through anything alone,” she said.

The Lagos State Government has released a calendar of over 70 state-sponsored and endorsed arts and culture programmes slated for the rest of this year in its bid to garner visibility for tourism-oriented art programmes..

The novel exercise, according to a release signed by the State’s Commissioner for Tourism, Arts and Culture, Mr. Steve Ayorinde, is designed to frontload public and privately driven arts, culture and entertainment events that will have positive impact on tourism and the image of Lagos as an arts-friendly state. “This initiative is in fulfilment of the State Government’s promise to announce a yearly calendar of events to guide programming, tourists and visitors’ decisions” he stated.

According to Ayorinde, the Governor of Lagos State, His Excellency, Mr. Akinwunmi Ambode, kick-started the year with his attendance at Ali Baba’s January 1st Comedy concert at Eko Hotel. Other arts and culture events held in January and February so far and included in the calendar are Angel and Muse, an art exhibition by a Lagos-trained world renowned artist; Eebi; a month-long Indigenous Cultural Festival in Epe; Wazobia FM Carnival as well as the Lagos City Marathon amongst others.

The idea of creating a calendar of events for state-sponsored and state-endorsed programmes, is to make event planning, tour bookings and business decisions easier for tour operators and the general public.

The calendar is part of the state’s innovative intervention to project arts, entertainment and leisure benefits inherent in Lagos, which makes the state attractive to domestic tourists; business travellers and stop-over passers-by.

The commissioner said, “the state is forging ahead in expanding the consumption of its tourism products by improving access to tourism information and creating an events guide for the media and tour bloggers”.

Although not exhaustive, the calendar contains most of the well-known indigenous cultural festivals across the state, entertainment events; concerts; visual and performing arts as well as fashion and culinary events.

The state is expected to leverage on its continous infrastructural development, regeneration and creation of iconic minuments snd attractions for entertainment, arts and culture enthusiasts to boost economic activities and expand opportunities for job creation during the various events slated on the calendar.

“The administration of Governor Ambode believes that the quantum of cash transactions across the tourism and entertainment value-chain, as tracked in December 2017 when about 50billion was spent on entertainment and leisure alone, is a testimony to the huge economic gain that exists in promoting tourism in Lagos State.This and other economic factors make Lagos one of the most vibrant and culturally significant cities in Africa with potentials to make enormous impact in driving in-bound tourists from across the globe.

Major events listed in the calendar include Gidi Fest, Lagos Water Regatta and Fanti Carnival around the Easter Period; the International Jazz Day celebration on April 30 which will be dedicated to the South-African Jazz legend, Huge Masekela; the Lagos Comedy Festival (incorporating Lagos Laughs on World Laughter Day) on May 6 and the Eko Art Expo in the last weekend in May.

June will be rich with the first ever Lagos Golf Funfair and the Lagos Cinefest, which is designed to take cinema-going experience to all the five divisions of the state.

The Lagos Festival of Plays is a major highlight in the third quarter of the year; so is the Lagos Fishing Festival (Oshoroko) in Ibeju-Lekki; Akwaaba Travel Market and Faaji Agba – a special concert for the elderly to mark World Elders Day.

October to December will be the most intense period on the calendar with Olokun Festival; MUSON Festival; AFRIMA, AFRIFF; Kayo-Kayo Festival in Epe; the Lagos Luxury Summit/Fair; Felabration which will be used to celebrate Deal’s 80th birthday posthumously; the Lagos Books & Arts Festival (LABAF) which will be used to welcome Lagos into Africa’s Creative Cities club as well as the phenomenally popular One Lagos Fiesta which will hold between December 24 and 31st across the five divisions of the state in its forth unbroken year.

“The State is grateful to corporate sponsors that will make many of these events happen” Ayorinde says; adding that “our aim is to use the calendar and other strategic initiatives to enrich the entertainment and creative economy as an integral component of tourism promotion.”

President Muhammadu Buhari on Tuesday joined the media and entertainment industry in congratulating renowned movie producer, Tunde Kelani, on his 70th birthday.

In a statement by his Special Adviser on Media and Publicity, Mr. Femi Adesina, the President felicitated all family members, friends, professional colleagues and the fans of the artiste.

He noted that Kelani started out as a journalist before mastering the art of storytelling through the stage and tube, and rising steadily to become one Nigeria’s foremost directors and producers in Nollywood.

The statement read, “The President commends Kelani’s uncanny story telling skills and his ability to breathe life into scripts and translate literature to movies, thereby enhancing understanding of the rich cultural heritage of the country and consistently updating the narrative of a unified and progressive nation.

“As the ace producer turns a septuagenarian, President Buhari believes the rising profile of the Nigerian film industry around the world testifies to the hard work, creativity and passion of artistes like Kelani, who toiled earnestly to attract global viewership, recognitions and awards.

“The President affirms that Kelani, through sacrifice, discipline and diligence, has contributed immensely to national development, especially his mentoring of younger Nigerians in the film industry.

“President Buhari prays that God will bless Kelani with good health and strength to continue in his noble trade.”

A few days to the record auction in London of Ben Enwonwu’s painting of an Ile-Ife princess, Adetutu Ademiluyi, there has been increasing curiosity to know more about the princess, whether she is alive or dead.

But like Leonardo da Vinci’s most famous portrait, Mona Lisa, finding more about “Tutu” has so far been elusive, even for her extensive family.

The missing work of the world renowned master , one of the three on Tutu, was discovered in a north London flat recently.

It goes on sale in the British capital on Wednesday and is expected to fetch 250,000 pounds ($347,000, 282,000 euros).

Enwonwu was professor of fine arts at the university in Ile-Ife, the cradle of the Yoruba people in southwest Nigeria, when he met Adetutu Ademiluyi and painted her in 1973 and 1974.

The painting of the Yoruba princess by an ethnic Igbo artist became a symbol of national reconciliation at a delicate time in Nigeria’s history.

A brutal civil war had ended just four years earlier between federal forces and Biafran separatists wanting an Igbo homeland in the southeast.

What is known about “Tutu” is that she was the granddaughter of the traditional ruler, Ademiluyi Ajagun, the Ooni (king) of Ife, who died in 1930.

He is said to have married up to 47 times, had many mistresses and, unsurprisingly, many children.

Surviving relatives in Ife said they remember an Adetutu in the family.

“Adetutu was… one of the daughters of Kabiyesi (king) Ademiluyi,” said Olori (queen) Anifowoshe, who added that she was the only surviving wife of the former monarch.

But Anifowoshe, who is said to be more than 100, couldn’t recall if Adetutu married or had children and told AFP: “She died many years ago.”

Cecilia Ayoka is another centenarian and was married to Prince Okero Ademiluyi, a son of the former king.

“I used to know Adetutu in those days but for some years now I haven’t heard anything about her,” she added.

“Not many people knew Adetutu because Ademiluyi is such a large family.

“My husband who happened to be one of the direct children was over 120 years before he died and he had more than 40 wives,” she said. “Only three of us are still alive.”

Giles Peppiatt, the head of modern and contemporary African art at Bonhams auction house who found what he describes as “the mythical picture”, has been in Nigeria doing his own detective work.

Ben Enwonwu

Last week, he travelled the 200 kilometres (125 miles) from Lagos to Ife and said the older women in the family may have been referring to an Adetutu of a different generation.

He said family members told him a younger Adetutu was alive, in her late 60s and living in Lagos, which would tally with her being aged in her late teens when she sat for Enwonwu.

“Tutu is one of about 300 (children). That’s why it’s actually quite difficult to find her,” he said.

He added: “It’s amazing. I can’t believe she’s alive.”

Enwonwu — famous for creating a bronze sculpture of Queen Elizabeth II — died in 1994 and appears not to have left any clues about his subject.

At his studio in Lagos, the artist’s son, Oliver, said he couldn’t recall his father ever discussing it and didn’t know where the remaining two paintings were.

But the 42-year-old, who is president of the Society of Nigerian Artists, said he was pleased about the increasing recognition his father was getting.

“It’s a thing of joy that several decades after his death my father’s works are being appreciated globally,” he added.

Peppiatt said although he was hopeful of finding the real Tutu after so long, it had no bearing on the painting’s worth as art.

“I will say, either way, I think it’s… just a beguiling picture, it’s an amazing portrait and whether we find her or not doesn’t really affect the value of the work.

“The value of the work is what he painted in 1973, not whether we find the sitter in 2018.”