Author: Chief Editor

Chelsea coach Frank Lampard says he is amused rather than annoyed by Jurgen Klopp’s criticism of his summer spending, pointing out that Liverpool splashed the cash on the road to Premier League glory. Lampard has invested around £200 million ($257 million) on Timo Werner, Kai Havertz, Hakim Ziyech and Ben Chilwell, with Thiago Silva arriving on a free transfer and goalkeeper Edouard Mendy reportedly set to join from Rennes. By contrast, Klopp has added only Greece left-back Kostas Tsimikas to his league-winning squad so far. Lampard, whose side begin their campaign away at Brighton on Monday, said any owner needed…

He was once considered a future star for club and country, but Dele Alli has fallen way below those expectations and the numbers show it. Dele Alli should be approaching his peak years but the Tottenham midfielder appears to be in stark decline. From his Spurs debut back in August 2015, the midfielder’s trajectory was initially impressive as he quickly adapted to the big step up from MK Dons. An England debut soon followed and the youngster apparently had the world at his feet. Fast forward to the opening game of Spurs’ 2020-21 Premier League campaign on Sunday, when Alli…

Manchester United have not won the Premier League since 2013 and Gary Neville is expecting that wait to go on for a little while longer. Manchester United may have to wait until Jurgen Klopp and Pep Guardiola leave Liverpool and Manchester City respectively before they win another Premier League title, according to Gary Neville. Not since legendary manager Alex Ferguson’s final campaign at Old Trafford in 2012-13 have United lifted the top-flight crown, finishing in the top two just once since then. Despite an upturn in form in the second half of last season, Ole Gunnar Solskjaer’s side ended 33…

FG agencies hold 2021 budget consultations President Muhammadu Buhari has hailed the Secretary to the Government of the Federation (SGF), Boss Mustapha, for organising a successful Ministers’ Retreat at the Presidential Villa, Abuja. Buhari, in a letter yesterday, said he was “very impressed” with the SGF’s performance at the retreat, hailing his speech on the second day. A two-day First Year Ministerial Performance Review Retreat for Ministers, Permanent Secretaries and top government functionaries held on September 7 and 8, 2020 at the State House Conference Centre, Abuja. The letter personally signed by the President read in part: “I am writing…

Deputy President of the Senate and Chairman, Senate Ad hoc Committee on Review of the 1999 Constitution, Ovie Omo-Agege, has said that the committee is not under pressure from external forces, contrary rumours. In a statement yesterday by his Special Adviser on Media, Yomi Odunuga, the senator assured that the panel would not bow to pressure, if any, to kill any of the constitution alteration bills before it. He promised that the red chamber would recommend all the bills before it for consideration and determine whether or not such proposals should be transmitted to Houses of Assembly. Omo-Agege stressed the…

Attorney-General of the Federation (AGF) and Minister of Justice, Mr. Abubakar Malami (SAN), has denied an alleged federal government’s involvement in an OPL 245 asset recovery deal entered with Drumcliffe, a United States firm. Drumcliffe, which serves as the litigation funder, established Poplar Falls LLC, a special fund incorporated in Delaware. Johnson & Johnson, a law firm hired by the federal government in 2016 for the recovery, had reportedly acted on the instructions of the AGF to sign a new deal with the US litigation firm to receive one-third of the recovered fund in the OPL 245 case. According to…

President of the Nigerian Bar Association (NBA), Mr. Olumide Akpata, yesterday said the body would meet with the Attorney General of the Federation (AGF) and Minister of Justice, Mr. Abubakar Malami (SAN), over the purported amendment of the Rules of Professional Conduct of lawyers, saying only the General Council of the Bar (Bar Council) could alter the rules. AGF has reportedly amended sections 9 to 13 of the rules guiding the professional conduct of lawyers in the country. The affected areas include payment of practising fees; stamp and seal for legal practitioners; the annual practising certificate for legal practitioners; and…

•You’re Nigeria’s ‘Divider-in-Chief,’ presidency tells former president •Listen to voice of reason, PDP urges president •APC: Actors that midwife rot can’t chart way forward President Muhammadu Buhari’s election in 2015 saved Nigeria from becoming a failed state, the federal government said yesterday in a stern reply to former President Olusegun Obasanjo’s last week rebuke of Buhari’s administration as heading the country towards failure. It said contrary to the former president’s claim, Nigeria was on its way down the slope after 16 years of the opposition Peoples Democratic Party’s (PDP) rule before Buhari ascended power and brought the country back from…

Emmanuel Addeh writes on the issues surrounding the recent removal of subsidy on petrol by the federal government, aggregating the views of the various opposing camps on the matter that has dominated national discourse for weeks To be sure, the debate over the retention or removal of petroleum subsidy has raged for decades, with various thought leaders taking opposing sides of the very divisive subject. In essence, while in some other parts of the world, a decision to review the payment of fuel subsidy may be a purely economic one, in Nigeria the highly charged issue goes beyond that, it…

• Laments governance deficits under APC governments The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) yesterday challenged President Muhammadu Buhari to ensure a free and fair election in the forthcoming Edo and Ondo State Governorship elections saying time is up for All Progressives Congress government in Nigeria. Besides, the opposition party decried governance deficits under the government of All Progressives Congress (APC) at the federal and state levels. The National Chairman of the PDP, Mr. Uche Secondus; Sokoto State Governor, Alhaji Aminu Tambuwal and his Oyo State counterpart, Mr. Seyi Makinde made this call yesterday at the official inauguration of the party’s rally…