13:37 27/07/2015
Lagos - Former Nigeria coach Stephen Keshi has reportedly
demanded the Nigerian Football Federation pay him a compensation package worth
1 billion Naira.
The tactician was sacked just a few weeks after signing a
new deal as Super Eagles head coach following claims he had applied for the
vacant role with the Ivory Coast team.
Keshi's lawyer has since contacted the NFF regarding the
demands, with an unnamed official telling African Football: "We have
received the notification.
"But we did not get it directly. We got it from the
National Sports Commission.
"I don't think it’s something we should be discussing,
but I can confirm that we have received the letter addressed to us through the
National Sports Commission."
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Monday, 27 July 2015
Senate hails Nigerians for eliminating polio
Augustine Osayande
13:34 27/07/2015
Abuja - The Senate President, Bukola Saraki, has congratulated Nigerians for preventing the spread of polio in the past year.
He said the successes recorded in Nigeria in Polio eradication in the past 365 days without a single case of the virus was as a result of the relentless hard work of partners, religious, community leaders and health workers.
The Senate President was pleased with the successes in Polio eradication from reported cases of 801 in 21 states in 2005 and with 62 wild cases and 34 Circulating Vaccine-Derived Cases (cVDPV) that had an endemic transmission rate in 2011 coupled with 122 wild cases and 8 circulating vaccine-derived cases.
He expressed his happiness in the containment of Polio in the country because the transmission rate in 2012 was endemic with reported 53 wild cases and three circulating vaccine-derived cases which were recorded as transmission endemic in 2013 to now having no documented case of poliomyelitis in 365 days.
Saraki credited the successes recorded in the eradication of the virus to the introduction of the Immunization Leadership Challenge.
He explained that the challenge, which was designed in partnership with Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation to reward states in Nigeria that made significant improvements in polio and routine immunization coverage, was to fast track achievement of the global milestone of interrupting further transmission of polio virus in Nigeria.
The Senate President urged Nigerians not to relent in this fight against polio.
The disease has been responsible for significant number of mortality and morbidity mostly, in children under years of age.
"As long as a single child remains infected, children in all countries are at risk of contracting the virus," Saraki said.
He emphasised the imperative need to continue the good work towards eliminating this crippling and potentially fatal virus until the World Health Organization (WHO) certified Nigeria as polio-free in 2017.
This will take Nigeria off the list of countries where the disease is endemic.
13:34 27/07/2015
Abuja - The Senate President, Bukola Saraki, has congratulated Nigerians for preventing the spread of polio in the past year.
He said the successes recorded in Nigeria in Polio eradication in the past 365 days without a single case of the virus was as a result of the relentless hard work of partners, religious, community leaders and health workers.
The Senate President was pleased with the successes in Polio eradication from reported cases of 801 in 21 states in 2005 and with 62 wild cases and 34 Circulating Vaccine-Derived Cases (cVDPV) that had an endemic transmission rate in 2011 coupled with 122 wild cases and 8 circulating vaccine-derived cases.
He expressed his happiness in the containment of Polio in the country because the transmission rate in 2012 was endemic with reported 53 wild cases and three circulating vaccine-derived cases which were recorded as transmission endemic in 2013 to now having no documented case of poliomyelitis in 365 days.
Saraki credited the successes recorded in the eradication of the virus to the introduction of the Immunization Leadership Challenge.
He explained that the challenge, which was designed in partnership with Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation to reward states in Nigeria that made significant improvements in polio and routine immunization coverage, was to fast track achievement of the global milestone of interrupting further transmission of polio virus in Nigeria.
The Senate President urged Nigerians not to relent in this fight against polio.
The disease has been responsible for significant number of mortality and morbidity mostly, in children under years of age.
"As long as a single child remains infected, children in all countries are at risk of contracting the virus," Saraki said.
He emphasised the imperative need to continue the good work towards eliminating this crippling and potentially fatal virus until the World Health Organization (WHO) certified Nigeria as polio-free in 2017.
This will take Nigeria off the list of countries where the disease is endemic.
PDP describes Buhari's US trip 'fruitless'
13:37 27/07/2015
Abuja - The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) has described President Muhammadu Buhari's trip to the United States as 'pointless and fruitless', Punch reports.
The PDP’s National Publicity Secretary, Olisa Metuh, at a media briefing in Abuja on Sunday, said events after Buhari’s visit to the US indicated that neither the President nor his party, the All Progressives Congress, had learnt anything from the trip.
He said he is disheartening that rather than secure any sort of tangible gain for the fight against terrorism, which has lost steam under the APC watch, with insurgents, who were pushed to the verge of surrender by the Goodluck Jonathan administration, now surging back and spreading into the country, the country got nothing but exchanges and disagreements between the Presidency and their American hosts.
He urged the government to face the business of governance and the fight against insurgency with every sense of seriousness.
Read more at Punch
Abuja - The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) has described President Muhammadu Buhari's trip to the United States as 'pointless and fruitless', Punch reports.
The PDP’s National Publicity Secretary, Olisa Metuh, at a media briefing in Abuja on Sunday, said events after Buhari’s visit to the US indicated that neither the President nor his party, the All Progressives Congress, had learnt anything from the trip.
He said he is disheartening that rather than secure any sort of tangible gain for the fight against terrorism, which has lost steam under the APC watch, with insurgents, who were pushed to the verge of surrender by the Goodluck Jonathan administration, now surging back and spreading into the country, the country got nothing but exchanges and disagreements between the Presidency and their American hosts.
He urged the government to face the business of governance and the fight against insurgency with every sense of seriousness.
Read more at Punch
Friday, 24 July 2015
Obama leaves US for Africa trip to Kenya, Ethiopia
07:46 24/07/2015
Washington - President Barack Obama left Washington for Kenya on Thursday in a trip that will also include a stop in the Ethiopian capital and a visit to the home of the African Union.
The landmark trip to Obama's ancestral homeland of Kenya, where his father was born, is his first as president and is also the first time a sitting US president will visit Ethiopia and the AU's headquarters in Addis Ababa.
The first African-American president of the United States is expected to address regional security issues and trade, and also touch on matters relating to democracy, poverty and human rights in the region.
Joining him on the trip is National Security Advisor Susan Rice, foreign policy aide Ben Rhodes and White House spokesperson Josh Earnest.
Before heading off on the trip - Obama's fourth time to Africa since taking office - he spoke about the promise, and difficulties, on the continent.
Incredible dynamism
"Despite its many challenges - and we have to be clear-eyed about all the challenges that the continent still faces - Africa is a place of incredible dynamism, some of the fastest-growing markets in the world, extraordinary people, extraordinary resilience," Obama said ahead of the trip.
He said Africa "has the potential to be the next centre of global economic growth", speaking at an event for the African Growth Opportunity Act, US trade legislation which aims to help bolster Africa's prosperity.
Obama has travelled to Africa more than any other sitting US president, and talked about the "deep" ties between Africa and the United States before setting off on the trip.
"There have been times where there have been misunderstandings, and there have been times where there have been suspicions. But when you look at every survey, it turns out that the people of Africa love the United States and what it stands for," he said.
Rights row
Obama has not yet been to Kenya during his White House tenure, with a previous trip delayed by Kenyan President Uhuru Kenyatta's indictment for war crimes by the International Criminal Court.
Those charges were suspended last year - in part, prosecutors say, because the Kenyan government thwarted the investigation.
His trip has also come under fire by rights groups, and more than 50 African and global human rights organisations have called on him to publicly meet democracy activists on the trip.
They voiced concerns about "grave and worsening" rights challenges in both Kenya and Ethiopia.
The charges against Kenyatta, and the fact Ethiopia's government won 100% of parliamentary seats in a recent disputed election, has raised questions about whether Obama should have made the trip at all.
In Kenya, Obama will attend a Global Entrepreneurship Summit, aimed at promoting businesses that promise to lift many more Africans out of poverty and help insulate societies against radicalisation.
In Addis Ababa, Obama is expected to address leaders of the African Union, remarks that may touch on Africa's democratic deficit.
There are no official visits scheduled for Obama to see his relatives while in Kenya, officials said.
Obama has said he had "never truly known" his father, was born in Kenya's far west, in a village near the equator and the shores of Lake Victoria.
A pipe-smoking economist, he walked out when Obama was just two and died in a car crash in Nairobi in 1982, aged 46.
Obama has previously made personal visits to Kogelo, the home of many of his Kenyan relatives, most recently in 2006.
Washington - President Barack Obama left Washington for Kenya on Thursday in a trip that will also include a stop in the Ethiopian capital and a visit to the home of the African Union.
The landmark trip to Obama's ancestral homeland of Kenya, where his father was born, is his first as president and is also the first time a sitting US president will visit Ethiopia and the AU's headquarters in Addis Ababa.
The first African-American president of the United States is expected to address regional security issues and trade, and also touch on matters relating to democracy, poverty and human rights in the region.
Joining him on the trip is National Security Advisor Susan Rice, foreign policy aide Ben Rhodes and White House spokesperson Josh Earnest.
Before heading off on the trip - Obama's fourth time to Africa since taking office - he spoke about the promise, and difficulties, on the continent.
Incredible dynamism
"Despite its many challenges - and we have to be clear-eyed about all the challenges that the continent still faces - Africa is a place of incredible dynamism, some of the fastest-growing markets in the world, extraordinary people, extraordinary resilience," Obama said ahead of the trip.
He said Africa "has the potential to be the next centre of global economic growth", speaking at an event for the African Growth Opportunity Act, US trade legislation which aims to help bolster Africa's prosperity.
Obama has travelled to Africa more than any other sitting US president, and talked about the "deep" ties between Africa and the United States before setting off on the trip.
"There have been times where there have been misunderstandings, and there have been times where there have been suspicions. But when you look at every survey, it turns out that the people of Africa love the United States and what it stands for," he said.
Rights row
Obama has not yet been to Kenya during his White House tenure, with a previous trip delayed by Kenyan President Uhuru Kenyatta's indictment for war crimes by the International Criminal Court.
Those charges were suspended last year - in part, prosecutors say, because the Kenyan government thwarted the investigation.
His trip has also come under fire by rights groups, and more than 50 African and global human rights organisations have called on him to publicly meet democracy activists on the trip.
They voiced concerns about "grave and worsening" rights challenges in both Kenya and Ethiopia.
The charges against Kenyatta, and the fact Ethiopia's government won 100% of parliamentary seats in a recent disputed election, has raised questions about whether Obama should have made the trip at all.
In Kenya, Obama will attend a Global Entrepreneurship Summit, aimed at promoting businesses that promise to lift many more Africans out of poverty and help insulate societies against radicalisation.
In Addis Ababa, Obama is expected to address leaders of the African Union, remarks that may touch on Africa's democratic deficit.
There are no official visits scheduled for Obama to see his relatives while in Kenya, officials said.
Obama has said he had "never truly known" his father, was born in Kenya's far west, in a village near the equator and the shores of Lake Victoria.
A pipe-smoking economist, he walked out when Obama was just two and died in a car crash in Nairobi in 1982, aged 46.
Obama has previously made personal visits to Kogelo, the home of many of his Kenyan relatives, most recently in 2006.
PDP cries out over murder of six chieftains in Benue
18:12 23/07/2015
Makurdi - The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in Benue State has raised an alarm over the murder of six of its chieftains in the state, reports Vanguard.
The party said the heinous crimes against its members has so as far gone largely unchecked as security agencies had no tangible evidence of arrests of perpetrators of the crimes.
Godwin Ayihe, the Publicity Secretary of the PDP in the state in a statement on Wednesday, said it is unacceptable to leaders of the PDP that six of the top party's members have been murdered in cold blood while security agencies seem to have no answers to the situation.
He called on security agencies and Governor Samuel Ortom to unravel the masterminds of the heinous crimes.
However, in a swift reaction, the All Progressives Congress (APC) in a statement by its state Chairman, Abba Yaro, absolved the party from the killings and blamed internal wrangling in the PDP for the development.
Read more at Vanguard.
Makurdi - The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in Benue State has raised an alarm over the murder of six of its chieftains in the state, reports Vanguard.
The party said the heinous crimes against its members has so as far gone largely unchecked as security agencies had no tangible evidence of arrests of perpetrators of the crimes.
Godwin Ayihe, the Publicity Secretary of the PDP in the state in a statement on Wednesday, said it is unacceptable to leaders of the PDP that six of the top party's members have been murdered in cold blood while security agencies seem to have no answers to the situation.
He called on security agencies and Governor Samuel Ortom to unravel the masterminds of the heinous crimes.
However, in a swift reaction, the All Progressives Congress (APC) in a statement by its state Chairman, Abba Yaro, absolved the party from the killings and blamed internal wrangling in the PDP for the development.
Read more at Vanguard.
APC chieftain assures Igbos
21:53 23/07/2015
Abuja - A chieftain of the All Progressives Congress (APC) Mr Osita Okechukwu, on Thursday assured that President Muhammadu Buhari would not neglect the Igbos in appointments.
Okechukwu, who is the spokesman of the party in the South-East, gave the assurance in an interaction with journalists in Abuja.
He said that the president still had more than 500 appointments to make and that the Igbos would be carried along fully.
He said the appointments made so far were based solely on professional competence, but expressed confidence that Igbos won't miss out in Buhari's government.
''My message for my people is that in the next one or two years, they will have nothing to complain about because the Federal Government of Nigeria is a big elephant.
''He has more than 500 appointments to be made and the juicy ones are also there, and even the sensitive ones are also there; we cannot miss out,'' he said.
The spokesman urged the people to be patient as the government had just spent one month out of its 48-month mandate.
''My people from the South-East are complaining over the appointments made so far; yes, that's a valid argument but the arguments could be accessed on two grounds.
''One, the president has 48 months mandate; he has just completed one or two which falls below five per cent of the mandate he was given.
''On the other hand, he has over five hundred appointments to be made no matter the delay, to be made between now and December or by this time next year.
''I personally feel it is very much on the side of impatience to assess the president with less than 30 appointments, because there are other crucial appointments still waiting,'' he said.
He explained that the appointment of service chiefs should not be politicised, considering the current level of insecurity in the country.
He expressed confidence in the president's disposition to fairness.
''I do not see President Muhammadu Buhari whom I have worked with for over 12 years neglecting or trying to breach that area of the Constitution that says appointments must reflect federal character,'' he said.
Abuja - A chieftain of the All Progressives Congress (APC) Mr Osita Okechukwu, on Thursday assured that President Muhammadu Buhari would not neglect the Igbos in appointments.
Okechukwu, who is the spokesman of the party in the South-East, gave the assurance in an interaction with journalists in Abuja.
He said that the president still had more than 500 appointments to make and that the Igbos would be carried along fully.
He said the appointments made so far were based solely on professional competence, but expressed confidence that Igbos won't miss out in Buhari's government.
''My message for my people is that in the next one or two years, they will have nothing to complain about because the Federal Government of Nigeria is a big elephant.
''He has more than 500 appointments to be made and the juicy ones are also there, and even the sensitive ones are also there; we cannot miss out,'' he said.
The spokesman urged the people to be patient as the government had just spent one month out of its 48-month mandate.
''My people from the South-East are complaining over the appointments made so far; yes, that's a valid argument but the arguments could be accessed on two grounds.
''One, the president has 48 months mandate; he has just completed one or two which falls below five per cent of the mandate he was given.
''On the other hand, he has over five hundred appointments to be made no matter the delay, to be made between now and December or by this time next year.
''I personally feel it is very much on the side of impatience to assess the president with less than 30 appointments, because there are other crucial appointments still waiting,'' he said.
He explained that the appointment of service chiefs should not be politicised, considering the current level of insecurity in the country.
He expressed confidence in the president's disposition to fairness.
''I do not see President Muhammadu Buhari whom I have worked with for over 12 years neglecting or trying to breach that area of the Constitution that says appointments must reflect federal character,'' he said.
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Boko Haram holds territories in the NE: governors
06:52 24/07/2015
Abuja - Boko Haram Islamists are still holding on to some territories in the troubled northeast, state governors from the region said on Thursday, after the military claimed a series of major victories against the Islamists.
Borno and Yobe governors told a monthly national economic council meeting in Abuja that the rebel group -- whose insurgency has claimed more than 15 000 lives since 2009 -- still controlled five municipalities within their states.
"On Boko Haram issues, governors of Yobe and Borno raised the alarm of five local government areas of the two states still being in possession of the insurgents," an official document made available to reporters after the meeting said.
Borno, Yobe and Adamawa states in the northeast have suffered the brunt of the Boko Haram insurgency.
A regional military coalition of Nigeria, Niger, Chad and Cameroon has claimed a series of major victories against Boko Haram since launching sweeping offensives against the jihadists in February.
But the Islamist fighters, who recently pledged allegiance to the Islamic State extremists who have captured swathes of Iraq and Syria, have been pushing back.
The Borno and Yobe governors called for an "increase in military deployment and provision of sophisticated military equipment in those areas", the three-page document said.
"Insurgents are still hiding in the Sambisa forest," it added.
It is widely believed that many of the more than 200 school girls kidnapped from their school in Chibok, Borno state, by Boko Haram jihadists in April last year are being held in the sprawling forest.
Gunmen killed eight people in a raid on a village in Borno state on Wednesday, in the latest violence blamed on the Islamists, a local resident and a vigilante said.
The attack was unleashed the same day as twin suicide bombings in Cameroon and a series of blasts at two bus stations in Nigeria that left at least 50 dead.
Abuja - Boko Haram Islamists are still holding on to some territories in the troubled northeast, state governors from the region said on Thursday, after the military claimed a series of major victories against the Islamists.
Borno and Yobe governors told a monthly national economic council meeting in Abuja that the rebel group -- whose insurgency has claimed more than 15 000 lives since 2009 -- still controlled five municipalities within their states.
"On Boko Haram issues, governors of Yobe and Borno raised the alarm of five local government areas of the two states still being in possession of the insurgents," an official document made available to reporters after the meeting said.
Borno, Yobe and Adamawa states in the northeast have suffered the brunt of the Boko Haram insurgency.
A regional military coalition of Nigeria, Niger, Chad and Cameroon has claimed a series of major victories against Boko Haram since launching sweeping offensives against the jihadists in February.
But the Islamist fighters, who recently pledged allegiance to the Islamic State extremists who have captured swathes of Iraq and Syria, have been pushing back.
The Borno and Yobe governors called for an "increase in military deployment and provision of sophisticated military equipment in those areas", the three-page document said.
"Insurgents are still hiding in the Sambisa forest," it added.
It is widely believed that many of the more than 200 school girls kidnapped from their school in Chibok, Borno state, by Boko Haram jihadists in April last year are being held in the sprawling forest.
Gunmen killed eight people in a raid on a village in Borno state on Wednesday, in the latest violence blamed on the Islamists, a local resident and a vigilante said.
The attack was unleashed the same day as twin suicide bombings in Cameroon and a series of blasts at two bus stations in Nigeria that left at least 50 dead.
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