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Crystal Palace boss impressed by Carlo Ancelotti’s work at Everton
Crystal Palace boss Roy Hodgson expects a tough test against Everton on Monday night. Palace’s squad are preparing to travel to Goodison Park. “Any time you go to Everton, you’re going to face a very very difficult game,” Hodgson said. “They are a good team, well-coached and the players they’ve brought in have made them much stronger. We have to prepare as well as we can and have faith that if we play as well as we know we can do, we can get a good result. “I think it will be a very different team [to the last meeting at Goodison Park]. Carlo [Ancelotti] is working with them and improving them all the time. Almost a year has gone by so that’s another year of working with Carlo. “He’s brought in players that have strengthened the players even more. We know it will be a tough game, but unfor...
ECWA: Terrorists tactically taking over Northern Nigeria
The Evangelical Church Winning All (ECWA) has raised the alarm, saying terrorist groups are tactically expanding their activities and making incursions into other parts of the North. Addressing a press conference in Jos on Wednesday on the insecurity ravaging the country, ECWA President, Dr. Stephen Panya, said “Boko Haram and ISWAP have destroyed tens of thousands of lives and displaced hundreds of thousands of Nigerians and many Christians and Christian communities have been deliberately targeted and destroyed. “It is clear that these terrorist groups are gradually but tactically expanding their activities and making incursions into other parts of the north and even beyond, and the apparent lack of unity in the fight against these terrorist groups, and the inability of government to deal...
Coronavirus: Nigeria gets $15 million grant for safe school reopening
The Federal Ministry of Education says Nigeria has received 15 million dollars response grant from the Global Partnership on Education (GPE) for COVID-19 safe school reopening across the country. Hajia Binta Abdulkadir, Director, Basic and Secondary Education in the ministry, said this on Wednesday in Bauchi, at a Cluster Mobilisation and Sensitisation Meetings on COVID-19 Protocols, Surveillance and Safe School Reopening Readiness. Abdulkadir was represented on the occasion by Mr Achede Owoicho, Deputy Director, Basic and Secondary Education and the Focal person for the GPE. The workshop is initiated with the support of the United Nations Children Education Fund (UNICEF). Abdulkadir noted that through the grants, UNICEF had sent WASH and ICT materials to 16 states for preparation of digit...
Minister: 60% of dairy products consumed in Nigeria imported
Nigeria imports at least 60 per cent of dairy products the country consumes, the Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development, Sabo Nanono, has said. Mr Nanono disclosed this when speaking at the National Dairy Policy Stakeholders Engagement in Abuja on Tuesday. He said, “Despite the potentials in the dairy industry, 60 per cent of dairy products consumed in the country is imported while the remaining 40 per cent is produced locally.” The minister said Nigeria’s per capita consumption of milk is 8 litres per year, representing very low consumption levels when compared with the global average of 44 litres of milk, according to the Food and Agriculture Organisation of the United Nations (FAO). According to him, presently, the Nigerian dairy industry is largely subsistence and consists of lo...
Arsenal star’s mum dies after coronavirus battle
Arsenal star Lucas Torreira’s mum has died after a battle with Covid-19, as reported by Uruguayan daily Ovacion. Viviana Di Pascua, 53, was recently admitted to intensive care after contracting the coronavirus in Uruguay. Torreira, who is currently on loan at Atletico Madrid, was given special permission by the La Liga club to fly home to Frey Bentos to be by her side. But Viviana’s situation worsened and on Tuesday her death was announced. Gunners midfielder Torreira contracted Covid-19 himself back in November 2020 following international duty. Torreira was the national team’s twelfth individual among players and staff to receive a positive result at the time. The 25-year-old was forced to miss two weeks of football, including a La Liga clash with Barcelona. A statement read at the time:...
Suez Canal reopens after stranded ship is freed
Traffic has resumed in Egypt’s Suez Canal after a stranded container ship blocking it for nearly a week was finally freed by salvage crews. Tug boats honked their horns in celebration as the 400m-long (1,300ft) Ever Given was dislodged on Monday with the help of dredgers. Hundreds of ships are waiting to pass through the canal which links the Mediterranean to the Red Sea. It is one of the world’s busiest trade routes. Peter Berdowski, CEO of Dutch salvage company Boskalis, said the Ever Given had been refloated at 15:05 (13:05 GMT) on Monday, “thereby making free passage through the Suez Canal possible again”. Egyptian officials say the backlog of ships waiting to transit through should be cleared in around three days, but experts believe the knock-on effect on global shipping could take w...
OPEC: Gas is vital to Nigeria’s future
The Organisation of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) says gas remains vital to Nigeria’s future in the global oil and gas sector. The OPEC Secretary General, Mohammad Barkindo, disclosed this on Monday in Abuja, at the pre-summit conference on “Decade of Gas”. He said that the move of the country to develop its huge gas deposit was a step in the right direction. “Gas is vital to Nigeria’s future, as is oil, and both will be fuels of choice globally for the foreseeable future and instrumental in facilitating the energy transition,” he said. The secretary-general said that the ‘Decade of Gas’ from 2021 to 2030 was likely to place Nigeria at the forefront of the vital global industry. Barkindo commended President Muhammadu Buhari’s effort as Head of Nigeria’s Delegation to OPEC, in the or...
LOC: Nigerian government yet to release funds for 20th National Sports Festival
The Federal Government is yet to release the funds it promised Edo for the hosting of the 2020 National Sports Festival (NSF) with less than a week to its commencement. Musa Ebomhiana, a Project Manager in the Media and Communications Sub-Committee of the festival’s Local Organising Committee (LOC), disclosed this on Sunday in Benin. He told newsmen however that, while the Edo State Government still remained hopeful the fund would be released, an early release would be better. “This will ensure smooth planning for the nation’s number one sports fiesta,” he said. Ebomhiana pointed out that the need to have a smooth planning was the reason the state’s Deputy Governor, Philip Shaibu, had last week appealed for the funds’ early release. “We are taking seriously the promise by the Minister of Y...
Abia by-election: APC candidate urges supporters to accept result
All Progressives Congress (APC) candidate for the just-concluded Aba North/South Federal Constituency by-election, Hon Mascot Uzor Kalu, has urged his supporters and APC members to accept the result and remain calm. The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) declared the candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Hon Chimaobi Ebisike, winner of the by-election held on Saturday. In a statement, Hon Kalu said the by-elect1ion was over and appealed to APC members to accept the outcome of the elections in good faith while appreciating them for making the party stronger in Abia. He said while the PDP wanted the election at all cost , “we chose life over bloodshed and therefore won lives and lost the polls. To us, that was a m victory.” Hon Kalu said the level of thuggery, violen...
Foundation uncovers additional 51 ‘TB’ cases in Benue
Fifty-One (51) persons of the 609 sample screened taking for Tuberculosis in Benue State which marked the 2021 World TB day, during the Community Outreach have shown to have symptoms associated with Tuberculosis. The Senior Program Officer, KNCV Foundation Nigeria, Dr Chubby Eze, has expresses worry that about 9,000 TB cases in Benue were yet to be unaccounted for. “As a result of this, we are carrying out this Community outreach to enable us reduce the number by getting these people to come out for the screening” “Our target is to test at least 100 persons for the outreach and continue with the exercise even after the World TB until we meet our target” “I advise people who for fear of being tested for COVID-19 at the Health Facilities and have resort to self medication to refrain from suc...
Niger governor decries level of corruption in Nigeria
The Niger State Governor, Alhaji Abubakar Sani Bello, has decried the level of corruption in the country’s political and economic environment, insisting that corruption is endemic in all the facets of the nation’s life. Speaking at a two-day ‘Get involved leadership’ training in Minna Wednesday, Governor Bello said: “The problem with Nigeria today is enormous, every sector is corrupted. There is no country that can develop with the level of corruption we have. According to the governor, “When you have a system where only limited or few people are transparent, the system can never work.” He submitted that as a result of the high level of corruption in the polity, political positions either elective or those appointed have always gone to the highest bidder, a development he described as unac...
World Forest Day: Nigeria’s forests reduced to less than 25% – environmentalists
Some environmentalists on Monday said that unwholesome human activities had reduced the nation’s forest resources to less than 25 per cent. The environment experts made the assertion during an event in Lagos State to commemorate the 2021 World Forest Day, held every March 21, to raise public consciousness on conservation of forests. Newsmen report that the theme of the 2021 edition is “Forest Recovery, a Path and Wellbeing’’. The environmentalists, who envisaged danger as a result of depletion of forests, advised Nigerians to always replenish nature, whenever their activities caused violation of nature. At the event, Executive Director, Sustainable Research and Action for Environmental Development, Nigeria, Dr Leslie Adogame, said “with reduced forestry resources the human habitat is under...
