Author: Chief Editor

MEMBER of Nigerian Football Federation Technical Committee, Victor Ikpeba, has kicked against the sacking of Gernot Rohr with less than 48 days to the 2021 Africa Cup of Nations insisting the move will be a disaster, PUNCH Sports Extra reports. Ikpeba made this known on SuperSport’s TV show Monday Night Football. Rohr came under heavy criticism again following the Super Eagles’ underwhelming performance in their 1-1 draw with Cape Verde at the Teslim Balogun stadium last Tuesday. Ikpeba however, advised that the NFF be patient with the 68-year-old till the end of the AFCON before taking a decision on his future. “It is less than…

•Top officers aid oil theft Rivers State Governor, Mr. Nyesom Wike, has said the fight to stop crude oil theft has continued to fail, because top ranking officers of the military, police and the Nigeria Civil Defence Corps (NCDC) were involved in the illegal activities. Wike stated this yesterday, when he hosted the Chief of Air Staff, Air Marshall Isiaka Oladayo Amao on courtesy visit at Government House, Port Harcourt. He urged the Nigerian government to consider the damage caused by activities of crude oil thieves to the economic mainstay of the country and treat them as treasonable offenders. The…

•Stakeholders to determine exact date The coast appears clear for the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) to elect a new set of national officers, as President Muhammadu Buhari, yesterday, gave the party the go-ahead to hold its national convention in February 2022. But Chairman of the APC National Caretaker Committee, and Governor of Yobe State, Mai Mala Buni, assured that all stakeholders would be involved in the choice of the particular date in February for the convention. Briefing newsmen in Abuja after a closed-door meeting with Buhari at the State House, Chairman of the Progressive Governors’ Forum (PGF), and Governor…

Africa’s trailblazing Nobel laureate in literature, Prof. Wole Soyinka, yesterday, said Nigeria has reached a stage “where a series of town hall meetings should be organised to ask ourselves retrospective questions about what has happened to us.” Speaking during the presentation and discussion of his book, ‘Chronicles From the Land of The Happiest People on Earth,’ inside the British Library Knowledge Centre on Monday night, he said the country has degenerated into a situation where human dignity has been devalued by vices such as the kidnapping of the Chibok schoolgirls and the recent alleged ritual killing of Timothy Adegoke Oludare…

A member of Lagos State judicial panel on police brutality that Ebun-Olu Adegboruwa Monday said persons he suspected to be working for the government have been threatening him. “Since the submission of the report of the Lagos #EndSARS Panel, there have been lots of threats and attacks, by those suspected to be agents of the government, upon me, especially in the media,” Adegboruwa said in a statement. “I have not committed any crime beyond joining other eminent Nigerians with unblemished integrity, to accept the nomination of government on behalf of my constituency, the Nigerian Bar Association and the civil society…

Kogi State government has described as “mischievous, false and politically motivated” a statement by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) that it returned N19.3 billion bailout funds allegedly “hidden” by the state to the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN). The government gave EFCC a 48-hour ultimatum to retract the statement posted on its Facebook account on November 19 or be prepared for court action. Kogi State Commissioner for Information and Communications, Kingsley Fanwo, who issued the ultimatum in Lagos, yesterday, assured Kogi indigenes, Nigerians, investors and development partners that the funds, which EFCC claimed it returned to the CBN,…

Contrary to insinuations that the Nigeria Football Federation (NFF) has formally parted ways with the Super Eagles manager Gernot Rohr, the football house said yesterday that it can’t do anything to that effect now. Since the Super Eagles’ 1-1 draw with the Blue Sharks of Cape Verde in their Qatar 2022 World Cup qualifiers in Lagos last Tuesday, there has been pressure on the NFF to sack Rohr. Many Nigerians are of the opinion that Rohr’s continuous stay as Super Eagles coach wouldn’t add any meaningful impact to Nigerian football, particularly in the fast approaching Cameroun 2022 AFCON and the…

Ahead of the 2023 presidential election, the Edo State Chapter of Volunteers for Tinubu 2023 Media Roundtable Steering Committee was at the weekend, inaugurated in Benin City, the state capital with a call on Nigerians to make Mr. Bola Tinubu their choice as president. The Chairman of the 10-man Steering Committee for Tinubu in Edo, and former member, representing Oredo federal constituency, Razaq Bello-Osagie, who inaugurated the media committee, said the call became necessary because the man Tinubu, represented leadership powered by vision and unrepentantly commitment for development. He also called on the media to set the agenda for the…

Xavi Hernandez’s rescue mission encounters its first major test on Tuesday as Barcelona face Benfica in a game that could decide the scrap in Group E to qualify for the Champions League last 16. “We cannot ignore our principles,” said Xavi on Saturday, after Barca had just beaten Espanyol 1-0 in his first game in charge to move up to sixth in La Liga. They had needed the help of a dubious Memphis Depay penalty and the post, which Espanyol hit twice late in the second half at Camp Nou. But before a frantic final 20 minutes, Barcelona looked like…

Cristiano Ronaldo paid tribute on Monday to “outstanding human being” Ole Gunnar Solskjaer after the Norwegian was sacked as Manchester United manager. Ronaldo, who returned to Old Trafford in August, has scored nine times in 13 games for United this season but has failed to prevent the club’s slide down the Premier League table after a series of embarrassing results. Solskjaer was sacked on Sunday, less than 24 hours after United’s humiliating 4-1 defeat at Watford, which followed chastening home losses to Liverpool and Manchester City. Ronaldo, 36, was a team-mate of Solskjaer’s in his first spell at the club…