Author: Chief Editor

Liverpool kept their chances of a place in next season’s Champions League in their own hands with a thrilling 4-2 victory over Manchester United at Old Trafford on Thursday. Jurgen Klopp’s men still need to win their remaining three games to guarantee a place in the Premier League’s top four but cleared the biggest hurdle in their path with a first victory away to United since 2014. Roberto Firmino scored twice either side of half-time after Diogo Jota cancelled out Bruno Fernandes’s early opener for the home side. Marcus Rashford’s strike set up a grandstand finish, but Mohamed Salah secured…

Pep Guardiola has warned Manchester City’s rivals that his addiction to winning will push the Premier League champions to even greater heights next season. Guardiola clinched his eighth major trophy as City manager when his side were confirmed as Premier League champions for the third time in four seasons on Tuesday. City also won the League Cup for a fourth consecutive season last month and can win the Champions League for the first time when they face Chelsea in the final on May 29. In his fifth season at City, Guardiola had already stayed longer at the Etihad Stadium than…

President of the Senate, Dr. Ahmad Lawan, and Speaker, House of Representatives, Hon. Femi Gbajabiamila, yesterday took on the 17 Southern governors, who rose from a meeting on Tuesday in Asaba, canvassing, among others, restructuring of the country. The duo, during an interaction with reporters in Abuja, challenged governors to start the restructuring from their states. Besides the call for restructuring, the Southern governors had also announced a ban on open grazing; demanded a national dialogue to address thorny national issues, and asked for key appointments into federal establishments to reflect federal character. Their decisions received applause from the Southern…

•President pleads for more understanding, says time needed to take delivery of weapons •Vows to resist bandits’ threat to food security The Sultan of Sokoto, Alhaji Sa’ad Abubakar III, has called on President Muhammadu Buhari and state governors to address the security challenges bedevilling the country. The Sultan spoke yesterday as the president pleaded for more elite understanding on raging strife in the country, explaining that time is needed for equipment procured, to fight agents of violence to submission, to be delivered. Abubakar in his Sallah message in Sokoto yesterday said the security challenges had continued to remain a great…

A former governor of Ondo State, Dr. Olusegun Mimiko, has expressed his support to the resolutions arrived at by southern governors after a meeting held in Asaba, the Delta State capital on Tuesday. In a statement issued yesterday, Mimiko urged the southern governors to meet with their northern counterparts to resolve the areas of differences and save the country from its current predicament. “It is also salutary that members of the Southern Caucus of the National Assembly have weighed in. It’s all a reflection of the realisation of the fact that the nation may be perching at the precipice, and…

The Commissioner of Police in Enugu State, Mr Mohammed Aliyu, has ordered investigation of fire outbreak at the Obollo-Afor office of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) in the state. Aliyu also directed the cordoning off of the scene for the thorough probe to further ascertain the actual cause of the fire outbreak and damages incurred. The state’s Police Public Relations Officer, ASP Daniel Ndukwe, said this in a statement made available to the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) early Friday morning. Ndukwe said that the fire incident, which happened at INEC office in Obollo-Afor located in Udenu Local Government…

Senate President Ahmad Lawan has cautioned States’ Governors and other elected leaders against joining the agitations for secession or calling for restructuring of the country. Lawan, who stated this while fielding questions from State House correspondents in Abuja on Thursday, said he was not against those calling for restructuring but elected officials must not be among those advocating for such calls. According to him, state governors must ensure that they restructure their respective states first before calling for restructuring at the federal level. He said: “The call for secession or the call for restructuring, many are genuine calls even though…

A human rights lawyer, Mike Ozekhome, SAN, has faulted the call by 17 southern governors for a constitutional conference. The governors had said such a conference would straighten knotty problems confronting the country. But Ozekhome who spoke in Anambra State on Thursday, as a keynote speaker at the 25th Law week of the Awka branch of Nigerian Bar Association, described the governors’ suggestion as unnecessary. Speaking on the topic ‘Legal profession in a lawless society,’ Ozekhome said the call for a new conference was not necessary, especially considering that the recommendations of the one held in 2014 had not been…

The World Health Organisation Country Representative for Nigeria, Dr Walter Mulombo, has said Nigeria and other African countries would no longer receive fund given to support polio eradication activities from January 2022. According to him, Nigeria and other countries on the continent had been removed from the priority list having been declared polio-free. A statement by the Chief Press Secretary of the FCT Minister, Anthony Ogunleye, on Thursday, quoted Mulombo as saying this when he led a delegation of the WHO to update the minister on key public health issues. He was quoted as saying that, “With the declaration of…

Chelsea boss Thomas Tuchel said Kepa Arrizabalaga “deserves” a starting spot in Saturday’s FA Cup final against Leicester even though the world’s most expensive goalkeeper is the second choice at Stamford Bridge. Kepa has played second fiddle to Edouard Mendy since the Senegal international joined from Ligue 1 side Rennes in September but has started every FA Cup match this season under Tuchel and his predecessor Frank Lampard. The Spaniard, 26, made a rare league outing in Wednesday’s 1-0 defeat by Arsenal, with Tuchel saying he wanted to give the £72 million ($101 million) goalkeeper a game before the Wembley…