Babatunde Fashola, on Thursday, urged the people of South West to vote for President Muhammadu Buhari in the 2019 elections to guarantee a return of power to the region in 2023. The minister stated this at a special Town Hall Meeting on infrastructure organised by the Ministry of Information and Culture and the National Orientation Agency. The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports the Minister of Information and Culture, Alhaji Lai Mohammed led three other ministers including Fashola, Ministers of Transportation, Rotimi Amaechi and Water Resources, Suleiman Adamu to the town hall meeting. The minister, who spoke in Yoruba language…
Author: David Folami
President Muhammadu Buhari will have to battle more than 70 opponents if he hopes to win the battle for a second term in the 2019 presidential election. The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) published the forms and particulars of candidates submitted by political parties for the 2019 general elections at its offices across the federation on Thursday, October 25, 2018, and Buhari will be facing scores of contestants eyeing the presidency. Of all 91 parties in the country, 89 had expressed their intention to field candidates at next year’s polls. According to a report by The Punch, over 70 names…
Romelu Lukaku should keep things simple as he tries to end his eight-game scoring drought, according to former United striker Dimitar Berbatov. The Belgian will line up against his old club Everton in the Premier League on Sunday having not found the back of the net since United’s 2-1 win over Watford in mid-September. Despite his lack of goals he has received backing from his manager Jose Mourinho and also from Berbatov who spent four years at Old Trafford from 2008, scoring 56 goals. “I know he’s not scored for eight games, but I don’t think the criticism of Lukaku…
There are many opinions and theories making the rounds right now about Romelu Lukaku’s loss of form at Manchester United, but amid all the noise and conjecture, perhaps the reality is that the Belgium striker is performing just as he always has. Maybe, as galling as it might be for Jose Mourinho and United’s executive vice-chairman Ed Woodward, the club got exactly what they overpaid for when investing what could end up being as much as £90 million in the forward in July 2018. Lukaku is a goal scorer — 31 goals in 64 games in a United shirt emphasises…
Thomas Tuchel wants an improved showing from his players when they take on Napoli away in their next Champions League Group C match after Wednesday’s dramatic, but “massively frustrating” 2-2 draw. The Italian side looked to have won it through Dries Mertens’ second-half strike after Lorenzo Insigne’s opener in the first but Angel Di Maria’s superb leveller in stoppaged and Mario Rui’s own goal saved a point for the Ligue 1 giants. “I do not know why we cannot play the same way for 90 minutes,” said Tuchel after the match. “We switched to three central defenders and created more…
Borussia Dortmund midfielder Christian Pulisic said that the “awesome” Westfalenstadion was a factor in Wednesday’s 4-0 win over Atletico Madrid in the Champions League. Pulisic, 20, told reporters after the match: “The key for today’s win was that we fought until the very end. We know that when we play as we currently do, then the substitutes will come on and score more goals.” Axel Witsel scored the opener in the 38th minute, profiting from a deflection. In the second half, substitutes Raphael Guerreiro and Jadon Sancho put their names on the scoresheet with the former grabbing a brace. The…
Liverpool’s run to last season’s Champions League final earned them £72 million, more than double the total amassed from the tournament by Manchester United, figures released by UEFA have showed. Jurgen Klopp’s side lost 3-1 to Real Madrid, the top earners with £78m, in the final in Kiev. Beaten semifinalists Bayern Munich made £62.3m, and Roma were the tournament’s second-highest earners with £74.1m. United, who went out to Sevilla in the round of 16, made £35.3m, while Paris Saint-Germain, knocked out by Madrid at the same stage, got £54.9m. Manchester City, who reached the quarterfinals, picked up £56.5m, with fellow…
AC Milan will have their Europa League prize money withheld by UEFA as a punishment for breaking financial fair play rules, the club’s president has confirmed. The Rossoneri were initially banned from competing in Europe this term before seeing the decision overturned by the Court of Arbitration for Sport. Milan are still seeking an agreement with UEFA — which will likely result in a fine. And club president Paolo Scaroni has confirmed the club will not receive any prize money from this season’s European campaign. “We are waiting for the judgement,” Scaroni said at a shareholders meeting. “UEFA can and…
Robin van Persie has said he will retire from football at the end of the season. Van Persie, 35, joined Arsenal from Feyenoord in 2004 and spent eight seasons with the North London side, winning an FA Cup before moving to United in 2012, where he helped guide the club to the Premier League title — finishing the campaign as the leading goal scorer with 26. And, in January 2018, he returned to Feyenoord following a two-and-a-half-year spell in Turkey with Fenerbahce. “That is probably at the end of this season,” he told AD in response to being asked when…
Maurizio Sarri admitted that he is finding Chelsea’s large first-team squad a “problem” after Ruben Loftus-Cheek staked a compelling claim for a regular starting spot with a hat trick in Thursday’s 3-1 win over BATE Borisov in the Europa League. Loftus-Cheek, making only his second start of the season, netted twice in the first half and once in the second from midfield to the delight of Stamford Bridge, becoming the first Chelsea academy player to score a hat trick for the senior side since Clive Walker in 1982. Chelsea delivered a convincing performance despite Sarri making eight changes to the…
Unai Emery wasn’t happy with the team’s continued habit of poor first-half performances. Emery’s side needed a late winner from Danny Welbeck to secure a 1-0 victory over Sporting Lisbon in the Europa League on Thursday, after struggling to create any dangerous chances before the break. Emery said he used his half-time team talk to improve things as Arsenal dominated the match after the break. But he still hasn’t solved the dilemma of getting his players to off to better starts. “We cannot impose our ideas in the first 45 minutes, but in the second half we have the chance…
The Presidency has assured all Nigerians that there is no reason to worry about the hollow outburst by Nnamdi Kanu, the disputed leader of IPOB on returning to the country “with hell’’. Malam Garba Shehu, the Senior Special Assistant to the President on Media and Publicity gave the assurance in a statement in Abuja on Tuesday. The presidential aide restated that Nigeria under President Muhammadu Buhari was strong enough to defend its territory against any threat. He said: “Instead, we see the re-enactment of his bizarre, episodic threat as a mere distraction which will not be allowed to detract from…
A group in Bauchi, under the aegis of Protein and Food Vendors Association on Tuesday donated N4.2million to support the re-election campaign of President Muhammadu Buhari and Vice President Yemi Osinbajo. The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that the donation was presented to Vice President Osinbajo during the launching of the National Small and Medium Enterprise clinics, held in Bauchi. Gov. Mohammed Abubakar of Bauchi, who announced the donation on behalf of the group, said the donors were impressed by the poverty alleviation programmes of the Federal Government, especially the Home – Grown School Feeding Programme. The group said…
Kayode Fayemi has denied receiving N30b from the Federal Government. This following several reports online stating that the Federal Government recently disbursed the said amount to the Ekiti state government. Lere Olayinka, the new media aide to the former Ekiti Governor, Ayo Fayose also alleged that the funds were disbursed. According to Vanguard, the Chief Press Secretary to the governor, Mr Yinka Oyebode said Fayemi urged the people of Ekiti to disregard the reports, describing them as fake news. Oyebode said “The fact remains that the new administration has not received any money from the Federal Government or any of…
Yemi Osinbajo said in Abuja that Nigerians spent about 8 billion dollars, annually, on importation of vehicles. Osinbajo, who was represented by the Director-General, National Automotive Design and Development Council, Jelani Aliyu, disclosed this at the 19th Abuja Motor Fair on Tuesday. “The government is fully committed to industrialisation and the mining sector to enable it create direct and indirect jobs for Nigerians “About 8 billion dollars goes to overseas for importation of vehicles while Nigerians are suffering, also most of the used vehicles imported are unsafe and not good for the citizens,’’ he said. Osinbajo said that government had…
Vice president Yemi Osinbajo said on Tuesday that corruption remained the major challenge of Nigeria, saying the country was lucky to have President Muhammadu Buhari as the nation’s leader. Osinbajo made the statement in Bauchi when he paid a courtesy visit on the Emir of Bauchi, Alhaji Rilwanu Adamu. “One of the things that have surprised me the most in government is that it is not that we do not have money. “It is that most of the money that should be used on projects and the poor, is stolen; corruption is the major problem of this country,” he said.…
A chieftain of the People’s Democratic Party (PDP), Chief Adeseye Ogunlewe, on Monday commended the party’s presidential candidate, Alhaji Atiku Abubakar, for promising to give the South-West the Secretary to Government of the Federation (SGF) slot, if elected. Ogunlewe, a former Minister of Works, gave the commendation in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Lagos. NAN reports that the Director-General of the Atiku Campaign Organisation (ACO), Chief Gbenga Daniel, had revealed Atiku’s SGF plan to newsmen on Sunday in Lagos. The South-West is at present not yet visible in PDP’s power equation for 2019 as the…
Lai Mohammed has described the re-emergence of the leader of the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB), Nnamdi Kanu, as a distraction to the country. Kanu had not been seen in public since an alleged attack on his father’s compound by soldiers on September 14, 2017, until he was pictured praying at the Wailing Wall of Jerusalem, Israel, on Friday, October 19, 2018. Since his re-emergence, Kanu has addressed his followers and vowed to return to the country to lead a boycott against the 2019 general elections. “I will be back soon in the land of Biafra and I will bring…
Ike Ekweremadu is about dumping the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), report understand. Ekweremadu recently got the PDP ticket to represent Enugu West Senatorial district for the fifth time. However, it appears that the 56-year-old lawyer and politician is dissatisfied with the treatment meted out to him by the PDP especially after the Port Harcourt primary election which produced Atiku Abubakar as the presidential candidate. Sources say there is a general feeling that Ekweremadu has been sidelined by the PDP after Atiku’s emergence. While condemning Ekweremadu’s alleged maltreatment, a Senator who craved anonymity said Ekweremadu would have made a better vice…
No fewer than 300 aspirants who had contested on the platform of the All Progressives Congress (APC) in Kano State have dumped the party. The aspirants said their decision was due to “gross injustice” allegedly meted out to them during the recent primary elections. The spokesman of the aggrieved aspirants, Sen Isah Zarewa disclosed this while briefing newsmen shortly after a meeting of the aggrieved aspirants at his residence in Kano on Monday. “In any democratic dispensation, the issue of internal democracy must be allowed to take precedence when it comes to the issue of according one the leverage to…