By Emmanuel Afonne

Mr Chinedu Okoye, Presidential aspirant in the Sept. 20 Nigeria Football Federation (NFF) electionhas faulted the decision of League Management Company (LMC) to end the Nigeria Professional Football League (NPFL) season with 13 matches left to play.

Okoye, the proprietor of Bimo football club of Lafia,stated this this in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Abuja, while reeling out his six-point agenda ahead of the forthcoming NFF board election.

NAN recalls that an emergency joint consultative meeting of the 20 NPFL clubs and the LMC met in Abuja in August and declared the 2017/2018 league season concluded after 24 matches.

The meeting said that the decision was against the backdrop of the adverse circumstances in the administration of football in the country, which resulted in the indefinite suspension league leading to huge fixture congestion for both league and cup competitions.

The decision meant that none of the 20 NPFL Clubs would be relegated to the lower league, while four would be promoted from the Nigeria National League (NNL) to bring the number of the NPFL Clubs for the 2018/19 season to 24.

But Okoye said that the termination of the NPFL with 13 games still remaining, while teams were separated from each other with just few points, can best be described as `match fixing.

This is the first time in the history of Nigeria football where the league was concluded with 13 matches to go.

Four people just sat down and decided to award Lobi Stars FC the NPFL title.

We all know that we have a problem; it is only in Nigeria that you know the winner of the league from the beginning of the season. We have to stop this, Okoye said.

According to Okoye, time has come when Nigerians should find out how football especially the leagues are run in the country.

Okoye said if elected president, he would tell Nigerians what the football secretariat got from sponsors annually.

There is sponsorship money from coca cola and other big companies; you cannot run NFF like a cabal or your fathers property because it has a mandate to develop football in Nigeria.

NFF collects 4.3 million dollars every year from FIFA for the development of football in Nigeria including the payment of state Football Associations, as well as female football but unfortunately, these monies get into individual pockets.

Is that the way to grow? No. We dont need NFF president that will go and watch Arsenal when his national team is playing a friendly game; that is what we have currently in Nigeria, but it has to stop.

I am talking about transparency and accountability in the NFF and I will be ready to answer anybody that will come to me to know how much comes into NFF and how much goes out.

In this current administration, you dare not ask because if you do, you are pushed out the following day, Okoye added.

The NFF presidential aspirant noted that the annual financial grant from FIFA was basically meant for the development of football at the grassroots with FA chairmen taking the driving seats and not to be spent on frivolities.

He said: There is no facility and there is no age grade competition in Nigeria. Children from age eight to 18 dont have any competition.

Again the issue of doping in our games has to stop. If I become the NFF President, the people that dope will have no place in our sport.

NAN reports that election into the executive committee of the NFF is scheduled to hold on Sept. 20, according to the amended timetable of the Sani Katu-led electoral committee.

Source: NAN

By Jessica Dogo

The FCT All Progressives Congress (APC) has warned political aspirants against monetary incentives to voters during the 2019 elections.

Similarly, the party adopted indirect primaries for its elections.

The Chairman, Abuja Municipal Area Council (AMAC), Mr Abdullahi Candido, said this at a meeting with stakeholders on Thursday in Abuja.

Candido, however, described the act of using money for elections as unnecessary, adding this usually leads to voting of wrong candidates into offices.

We have advised our party members especially our excos to approach this election with no thinking of unnecessary monetary incentives.

If they do, our fear is that inducement by aspirants could lead to a party getting a wrong candidate for the election and therefore they should de-emphasise the issue collections of little stipends from party aspirants.

They should identify the best whether he has money or he doesnt have money, he said.

Candido further explained that the indirect primaries mode was healthier and would curb the excesses of hooliganism during elections.

Also, Mr Yamawo Tanko, Director, Satellite Town Development Department (STDD), said that the indirect primaries would be done by the party delegates.

Tanko said that the delegates include: party excos from the ward, local governments, the states and some political office holders.

This will be the indirect primaries not the direct primaries where every card-carrying member of the party will queue up and elect a candidate.

It is going to be purely party excos. I believe it is going to be a hitch free primaries, Tanko said.

In his remarks, Abdulmalik Usman, Chairman, FCT APC, said that the constitution of the party allows direct and indirect primaries as well as consensus.

Usman explained that the indirect primaries was adopted so as to maintain peace in the FCT, adding that it has always been like that in the previous elections.

We have been one family since the beginning of crises in APC, we have never witnessed crisis in FCT, he said.

Earlier, Sen. Sidi Ali, who read the communiqu, said that the executive and stakeholders unanimously approved the position of indirect primaries.

Ali noted that the indirect primaries would help produce credible candidates for the 2019 general elections.

Source: NAN

By Chijioke Okoronkwo

There was jubilation at Utako market, Abuja,on Thursday as the Vice President, Prof. Yemi Osinbajo, inaugurated the TraderMoni scheme.

TraderMoni is a Federal Governments initiative aimed at providing two million petty traders across the country with collateral-free loans before the end of the year.

The ecstatic traders cheered and hailed as the vice president went from stall to stall having one-on-one conversations with the sellers.

Addressing the crowd, Osinbajo, who spoke partly in Pidgin English, said that with TraderMoni, petty traders would be empowered.

The small small traders, no be big traders; na small small traders we wan give money; make them able to sell well; have more money to sell.

We give N10,000; if pay back in six months, then you get N15,000; if you pay back, you get N20,000

We want to encourage petty traders so that they will have enough money to do their businesses; we have done one before for the bigger traders, that one is Government Enterprise and Empowerment Programme(GEEP), N100,000 to 120,000.

If you do well with the N10,000, N15,000, N20,000, then we can increase it; everyone can benefit from this; the president himself has said he wants to make sure that those who are selling in the market:selling pepper, sugarcane, tomato get the money.

So, when you are given the money, we urge you to make sure you pay back; there is no interest; you just take it and you pay back in six months; I want all of us to make sure we register so that we can be given the money, he said.

TraderMoni, which had Lagos, Abia and Kano as its pilots states, would be inaugurated across the country.

Source: NAN

By Harrison Arubu

The Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Commission (ICPC) on Thursday said it had arrested a former federal budget officer, for allegedly receiving gratification to the tune of N5.5 million.

ICPCs Spokesperson, Mrs Rasheedat Okoduwa, identified the suspect as Henry Oyibo, in a statement issued in Abuja.

According to the statement, Oyibo, formerly with the Budget Office of the Federation, is at the moment with the Ministry of Niger Delta.

She said that preliminary investigation by the commission revealed that Oyibo received the money to facilitate the release of funds, budgeted for the Federal Medical Centre, Lokoja, between 2014 and 2015.

Okoduwa alleged that the inducement came from the Director of Finance and Accounts, Mr Sule Otu, and three other members of staff of the centre.

According to her, the suspect was at the time acting as the liaison officer between the budget office and the medical centre.

The actions of the officials, which border on corrupt offer and receipt of gratification by public officers, are contrary to Sections 8, 9, 16 and 19 of the Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Act, 2000.

Further investigation also revealed that Oyibo owns assets valued far beyond his legitimate earnings, in breach of Section 44 (2) of the ICPC Law.

All the suspected staff of the Federal Medical Centre, who had been in custody before, were granted bail and released by the commission.

Oyibo, who is now in custody, will be released upon the fulfillment of his bail conditions, she said.

The ICPC image maker said, however, that the suspects would be arraigned as soon as investigations are completed.

Source: NAN

By Lucy Nwachukwu

The National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) said the country recorded foreign trade valued at N6.57billion in the second quarter.

The bureau disclosed this in its Foreign Trade in Goods Statistics (Q2 2018) report released on Thursday in Abuja.

It said the figure was 8.9 per cent less than 7.21 billion recorded in the first quarter and represents a 14.56per cent growth from the N5.73billion recorded in the second quarter of 2017.

According to the bureau, the contraction of total trade in the quarter under review is mainly driven by the decline in both imports and exports.

The total value of exports in the quarter under review is N4.46 billion.

This represents a -4.9 per cent contraction over the first quarter (4.70billion) and a 43.8 per cent growth compared to second quarter of 2017.

Likewise, the total import component in the second quarter (2.11billion) also recorded a decline of -16.3 per cent.

This is lower than the first quarter (2.52billion) and -19.9 per cent lower than the first quarter of 2017, the report said.

It said the trade balance in the second quarter was a surplus of N2.36 billion.

This, it explained, was a 8.36 per cent increase from the figure in the first quarter (N2.17 billion) and, against N471.48 billion in the first quarter of 2017.

Source: NAN

By Adekunle Williams

The International Air Transport Association (IATA) on Thursday said that 4.1 billion passengers were transported in 2017 compared to the 3.8 billion passengers recorded in 2016.

The figure is more than half of the Worlds population currently put at 7.2 billion.

The information is contained in the 62nd Edition of the World Air Transport Statistics (WATS), the yearbook of the airline industrys performance.

The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Lagos obtained a copy of the document after it was released by IATA from Montreal, Canada.

NAN observed that the document showed that the 2017 performance represented an additional 280 million trips (7.8 per cent increase) by air compared to 2016.

It said: Worldwide annual air passenger numbers exceeded four billion for the first time.

It is supported by a broad-based improvement in global economic conditions and lower average airfares.

At the same time, airlines connected a record number of cities worldwide, providing regular services to over 20,000 city pairs in 2017, more than double the level of 1995.

Such increases in direct services improve the industrys efficiency by cutting costs and saving time for both travellers and shippers alike.

According to the document, airlines in the Asia-Pacific region once again carried the largest number of passengers with 36.3 per cent market share (1.5 billion passengers).

The documented also showed that Europe recorded 26.3 per cent market share (1.1 billion passengers} while North America recorded 23 per cent market share (941.8 million passengers).

It also indicated that Latin America recorded 7 per cent market share (286.1 million passengers).

Also, Middle East recorded 5.3 market share (216.1 million passengers) while Africa recorded 2.2 per cent market share (88.5 million passengers).

The document also showed that the top five airlines ranked by total scheduled passenger kilometers flown were: American Airlines (324 million) and Delta Airlines (316.3 million).

Others are the United Airlines (311 million), Emirates Airlines (289 million) and Southwest Airlines (207.7 million).

It also stated that citizens of United States of America topped the travellers chart with 632 million passengers followed by the Peoples Republic of China with 555 million passengers.

Also India had 161.5 million passengers, the United Kingdom recorded 147 million passengers and Germany had 114.4 million passengers.

The Director-General of IATA, Mr Alexandre de Juniac, commenting on the development said, In 2,000, the average citizen flew just once every 43 months. In 2017, the figure was once every 22 months.

Flying has never been more accessible. And this is liberating people to explore more of our planet for work, leisure and education. Aviation is the business of freedom.

Source: NAN

All 23 members of the 24-member House of Assembly in Kwara, including the Speaker, have denied financial inducement for their recent defection to the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP).

The lawmakers are alleged to have each collected N15 million to defect from the All Progressives Congress (APC) to PDP on Aug.1.

But the 23 members, at plenary on Tuesday, denied being induced with money for their decision to quit the APC.

Each of the defected lawmakers, in their defence, described the allegation as unfounded and a calculated attempt to tarnish their names.

They said that no individual or group gave them N15 million as bribe prior to their Aug. 1 defection to the PDP.

They accused the only APC lawmaker in the house, Saheed Popoola, as being responsible for the alleged rumour on social media.

The lawmakers claimed that their defection to PDP was purely on personal conviction devoid of any financial inducement.

However, Popoola (APC Olomu-Balogun) in his reaction, said he did not speak with any media on the alleged N15 million bribe.

Popoola refuted the claim by his colleagues of being the author of the alleged rumour, and challenged them to produce evidence or testimonies against him.

Concluding debate on the matter, the Speaker, Dr Ali Ahmad, urged his fellow Speakers in states Houses of Assembly to resist the temptation of declaring vacant, seats of defectors in their states.

Source: NAN

Former Governor of Kano state, Malam Ibrahim Shekarau, has finally dumped the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP).

Sule Yau Sule, Media Aide to the former governor disclosed this in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Kano on Tuesday.

Sule Yau who did no give reasons for the decision, however told NAN that Shekarau had already called for a stakeholders meeting to be held today (Tuesday).

He explained that during the meeting, the former governor and the stakeholders would decide where he (Shekarau) will go.

The former governor has left PDP and has called for a stakeholders meeting today (Tuesday) from where he will decide where to go.

You know he will not take decision without meeting the stakeholders which has always been his habit, Yau Sule said.

NAN reports that the PDP State Executive Committee was dissolved by the National Working Committee (NWC) of the party on Friday in Abuja.

The decision by the NWC to disregard the earlier court order irked the state leadership, supporters and all stakeholders of the party in the state.

The state leadership on Monday rejected in totality the purported dissolution of the state executive committee by the NWC of the party.

Alhaji Sarki Labaran, a chieftain of the party declared the stand of the party in the state while addressing hundreds of supporters who converged on the state Headquarters of the party

The NWC had yet to give reason as to why it took the action.

Source: NAN

The Osun Police Command on Tuesday announced the arrest of a 27 year-old man Isa Adamu, who allegedly conspired with others to kidnap and later murder his 55 year-old father after collecting ransom from his family.

The murdered man was identified as Ibrahim Adamu.

Mr Olafimihan Adeoye, Osun Commissioner of Police, while parading suspects at the Police Command in Osogbo, told newsmen that on April 27, the senior Adamu was kidnapped in his house in Ede, Osun, and driven away in his car by a gang of kidnappers.

He said when the case was reported to the police, a prime suspect, Jola-Anabi Saheed was arrested and charged to court for the kidnapping.

He said the prime suspect later jumped bail .

Adeoye said the action of the prime suspect led to further investigation by the police, which resulted in the arrest of three other suspects, including the son of the kidnapped victim.

He said the police, after interrogating the three suspects, discovered that it was the son of the suspect that hired the others and the fugitive prime suspect to kidnap his father.

He said it was also discovered that the suspects killed their victim after collecting N3 million ransom from his family.

He said the suspects confessed to have buried their victims body near a river and it is now believed that the corpse had been washed away by the river.

He said the son of the kidnapped victim confessed to the police that his accomplices promised to give him N500,000 from the ransom collected from his family but only gave him N45,000.

Adeoye said another four-man robbery gang, terrorising Owode, Ede, Osogbo and its environs was also arrested by the police and two vehicles, electronics and other items were recovered from the gang.

He said a Hummer Bus that was stolen in Osun in August was recovered in Abeokuta, Ogun from the buyer. The recovery of the bus, he said, also led to the recovery of five other stolen vehicles through SARS investigation.

Source: NAN

Ugandas Nyege Nyege international music and arts festival sponsored by telecom giant, MTN, has been banned because of scheduled open sex, noise, homosexuality, LGBTI.

Let foreigners not come to Uganda for sex. If you are coming for sexual reasons worse still homosexuality and LGBTQ, stay away.

MTN Nyege Nyege will not be accepted it will not take place. I wanted Nyege Nyege cancelled last year but they escaped, Ugandas minister of Ethics and Integrity, Mr. Simon Lokodo warned.

The three-day festival slated to begin on Thursday, Sept. 6, has been banned Lokodo announced.

Lokodo said the government had information that open sex, noise, homosexuality, LGBTI will be part of the Nyege Nyege.

This ugly thing called MTN Nyege Nyege is not taking place this year.

We have already evaluated how much losses will come. We shall save the image of this country but not allow this to take place for the two days and one night, he said.

This years festival is sponsored by telecom firm MTN. Last year, Bell Lager the first Ugandan brewed beer by Uganda Breweries Limited sponsored the event.

The activity will be covered by alcohol and music. There will be drugs, toxicants not accepted by this country.

There will be nudity and sexuality done at any time of the hour. There will be open sex.

The very name of the festival is provocative. It means sex, sex or urge for sex. We have been informed its taking place near Owen Falls dam. This brings uncertainty and fear.

This is close to devil worshipping and not acceptable.

Mr Lokodo said he has written to the police to stop the event from taking place.

The festival had attracted over 300 artists from over 30 countries.

The venue was set on a six-acre forest on the banks of the River Nile, a kilometre away from the source of the river and Jinja town.

Source:

Source: NAN