June
No Uefa hammer for gay supporting German skipper
The German FA has said it will not be punished by UEFA for the rainbow-coloured captain’s armband Germany skipper Manuel Neuer has worn during Euro 2020 in solidarity with gay pride this month. The German Football Association (DFB) said it has received a letter from European football’s governing body stating that a review of the matter has been stopped. “The armband has been assessed as a team symbol for diversity and thus for a ‘good cause’”, the DFB said on Twitter. Normally, the captains of each team at the European Championship are obliged to wear a standard armband issued by UEFA. Former Germany midfielder Thomas Hitzlsperger, who came out as gay after retiring in 2013 and is now head of sport at VfB Stuttgart, was unimpressed that UEFA were even looking into the armband matter. “Come...
French far right irked by election results, southern region in play
France’s far right performed worse than predicted in Sunday’s regional elections, exit polls showed, leaving victory in the southern battleground of Provence-Alpes-Cote d’Azur and a platform for the 2022 presidential election in the balance. Marine Le Pen’s Rassemblement National expressed frustration at a record low turnout,as the centre right made its first comeback at the ballot box since a disastrous showing in the 2017 presidential election and President Emmanuel Macron’s party finished fifth. The high abstention rate in Sunday’s first-round vote, projected at 68.5% by pollster Elabe, coincided with a sunny Sunday and emergence from months of tough COVID-19 curbs. “This evening the government won because for the last few weeks it has been in search of a massive abstention rate,” said ...
Police arrest school proprietor for ‘sexually harassing’ 14-year-old
The police in Lagos have arrested one Emmanuel Madueke, the 62-year-old proprietor of Megland Comprehensive School, Lekki, for allegedly sexually assaulting and harassing a 14-year-old student of his school. This was contained in a statement issued on Sunday by the Lagos State Domestic and Sexual Violence Response Team (DSVRT). It stated that the proprietor sexually harassed the student on the day schools celebrated Children’s Day. According to the Coordinator of the DSVRT, Titilola Vivour-Adeniyi, a team comprising of officers of the Lagos State Office of Education Quality Assurance, Lagos State Ministry of Youth and Social Development, and the DSVRT visited the school on June 17 to investigate the claims. The visit was based on the Lagos State Government’s Executive Order on Safeguarding...
Fuel marketers bewail extortion by DPR officials, threaten strike
The Independent Petroleum Marketers Association of Nigeria (IPMAN) Suleja/Abuja Unit, on Sunday, threatened to embark on a strike action over alleged extortion by officials of the Department of Petroleum Resources (DPR). It said members would be instructed not to load from Suleja depot in Niger State. The Chairman of the Unit, Alhaji Yahaya Ahman Alhassan, made the disclosure during an interactive session with journalists in Abuja. According to him, the association seeks an explanation as to DPR’s incessant demand for daily sales activities from filling stations. “IPMAN has no other alternative other than instructing our members not to load from Suleja depot in Niger State to express our frustrations after all efforts to make DPR officials desist from unethical practices failed. “These iss...
Kaduna: Police arrest one after shoot out with bandits
Operatives of the Kaduna Police Command have arrested a suspected bandit around Kudaru forest in Saminaka, Lere Local Government Area of Kaduna State and intercepted a Volkswagen vehicle and AK47 rifle. The Command’s Police Public Relations Officer (PPRO), ASP Muhammed Jalige, in a statement he released on behalf of the Police Commissioner, Umar Muri, said the suspect identified as Bello Abubakar was arrested during a shoot out. He, however, said that Abubakar’s other gang members were at large, but the suspect had already volunteered useful information that may lead to their arrest. According to the Police spokesman, “the Operatives of the Kaduna Police Command had on the 18th June, 2021 at about 0745hrs while on routine patrol along Kudaru forest in Saminaka, Lere LGA of Kaduna State, in...
Malawi runs out of coronavirus vaccines as second jabs due
Delays in coronavirus vaccine shipments to Malawi have caused health facilities to run out of doses as hundreds are due to receive a second shot, the health minister said Saturday. The southern African country has so far received 300 000 doses of the AstraZeneca vaccine from the United Nations, 102 000 from the African Union and 50 000 donated by India. Inoculations started in April and the country was expecting a second UN shipment of 900 000 by the end of May, four weeks before the first vaccinated Malawians would be due a second dose. But Health Minister Khumbize Kandodo said that batch had been delayed by a recent surge in coronavirus cases in India, the world’s main AstraZeneca supplier, which forced the country to temporarily halt major vaccine exports to meet local demand. “The situ...
Jamiu Abiola: MKO, Kudirat died in vain if Nigeria’s democracy collapses
Getty Images Son of Chief MKO Abiola, winner of the 1993 presidential election, Alhaji Jamiu Abiola has floated a foundation named after his mother, Alhaja Kudirat Abiola to work for peace and unity of Nigeria in the face of agitations for secession. Jamiu Abiola said it would mean that his parents, Alhaja Kudirat and Chief MKO Abiola died in vain if Nigeria or its democracy collapse. He spoke in Zaria, Kaduna State on Saturday while launching the Kudirat Abiola Sabon Gari Peace Foundation in memory of his Zaria-born mother, who was assassinated on the 4th June 1996. Alhaji Jamiu Abiola who is the Chairman of the Foundation said, it was founded to work against the forces trying to bring Nigeria down, adding that the creation of Nigeria by God was not a mistake and the country has gone too ...
Ivory Coast says chocolate traders failing to pay farmers living wage premium
Major chocolate traders in Ivory Coast are failing to pay a $400-per-tonne premium on beans aimed at curbing farmer poverty, the country’s cocoa regulator said in a draft letter seen by Reuters on Friday. The Coffee and Cocoa Council (CCC) said companies including Mondelēz International Inc(MDLZ.O) were offsetting the Living Income Differential (LID) by offering a negative country differential – normally a premium of 70 to 150 pounds ($99-$212) per tonne to reflect the quality of Ivory Coast’s beans. Mondelēz said it was paying the full LID. “(Mondelēz) does not offer or have any influence over negative country differentials,” the company said in a statement to Reuters. Buyers have been pressing for the country differential to be turned into a country discount, so farmers receive the extra...
Unity schools old students condemn Kebbi abduction
Former students of unity schools across the country, under the aegis of the Unity Schools Old Students Association (USOSA), have decried Thursday’s attack on the Federal Government College, Birnin Yauri, Kebbi State during which scores of students and teachers were abducted by bandits. Mr Lawrence Wilbert, the National President of USOSA, in a statement made available to Daily Independent, on Friday, called for an end to such sad incidents in Nigerian schools. The statement read: “The Unity Schools Old Students Association (USOSA) unequivocally condemns the abduction of scores of students and staff of Federal Government College, Birnin Yauri in Kebbi State by bandits in the morning of Thursday 17th June 2021. We also decry the fact that a police officer was killed while some students and s...
South African long jumper gets four-year ban for anti-doping violation
Olympic long jump silver medallist Luvo Manyonga is set to miss the Tokyo Games after being banned for four years for a second anti-doping rule violation, the Athletics Integrity Unit (AIU) said on Friday. The 30-year-old South African’s ban has been backdated to Dec. 23, when he was provisionally suspended, and he will be eligible to compete again from Dec. 23, 2024 – meaning he will also not be eligible for the 2024 Olympics in Paris. Manyonga, who was previously banned for 18 months over the presence of methamphetamine in a sample, was charged with an anti-doping rule violation for missing a test on Nov. 26, 2019, and two filing failures in April and October last year. World Athletics rules define any combination of three missed tests and/or filing failures within a 12-month period as a...
Fish once labeled a ‘living fossil’ surprises scientists again
The coelacanth – a wondrous fish that was thought to have gone extinct along with the dinosaurs 66 million years ago before unexpectedly being found alive and well in 1938 off South Africa’s east coast – is offering up even more surprises. Scientists said a new study of these large and nocturnal deep-sea denizens shows that they boast a lifespan about five times longer than previously believed – roughly a century – and that females carry their young for five years, the longest-known gestation period of any animal. Focusing on one of the two living species of coelacanth (pronounced SEE-lah-canth), the scientists also determined that it develops and grows at among the slowest pace of any fish and does not reach sexual maturity until about age 55. The researchers used annual growth rings depo...
President Buhar: We won’t rest until peace is fully restored in Borno
President Muhammadu Buhari Thursday in Maiduguri, Borno State, assured citizens of the federal government’s presence in fighting terrorism to the end, and ensuring that Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) are fully returned to continue normal lives, commending Governor Babagana Zulum for resilience and relentless efforts in rebuilding the state. President Buhari, on an official visit to the state to appraise the security situation and commission some development projects, attributed recent successes recorded by the military against insurgents and terrorists at Dikwa, Damboa and Gwoza to careful planning, infusion of new equipment and other war materials as well as quality military leadership. “I am very happy to be here in Borno State once again. I consider Maiduguri and Borno State to be ...
