Years
Pep Guardiola confident Kevin de Bruyne will commit future to Manchester City
Pep Guardiola expects Kevin De Bruyne to commit his long-term future to Manchester City despite reports the Belgium midfielder’s contract talks have stalled. De Bruyne’s current contract runs until 2023, but City have already offered him a new deal. That contract extension remains unsigned amid claims De Bruyne was “disappointed” City’s offer did not significantly improve his reported salary of £280,000 ($380,000) per week. De Bruyne, voted the PFA Player of the Year last season, is said to want a deal that reflects his status as one of the world’s best midfielders and vice-captain of the club. Despite those issues, City boss Guardiola remains confident De Bruyne’s future will be at the Etihad Stadium. “I am pretty sure he will stay but at the same time we have to respect the process,” Gua...
Court orders Governor Obaseki to open defence in ‘certificate forgery’ case
The All Progressives Congress, APC, on Monday, closed the forgery case it instituted against Governor Godwin Obaseki of Edo State, after it called a total of six witnesses and tendered 17 Exhibits. Lead counsel to the APC, Chief Akin Olujimi, SAN, announced decision of the party to rest its case, shortly after the court discharged the sixth witness, PW-6, Dr. Mikano Asekome, who is an Associate Professor in Banking and Finance Department at Benson Idahosa University, Benin city, Edo state. The PW-6 told the court that he was on December 23, 2020, summoned to appear as witness in the matter. The witness went ahead and tendered in evidence, the original copy of his certificate in Agricultural-Economics, which the University of Ibadan awarded to him on July 31, 1978. Under cross-examination, ...
Alibaba founder Jack Ma ‘missing’ after criticism of Chinese government
Chinese business magnate Jack Ma has reportedly gone missing for two months, Yahoo Finance reported early Monday. The seemingly awkward disappearance of the 56-year-old billionaire businessman from the public eye comes nearly three months after he made critical remarks about the ‘stifling of innovation’ by Chinese authorities through stringent regulations, which he said had outlived their relevance. “Today’s financial system is the legacy of the Industrial Age,” Yahoo Finance reported Mr. Ma to have said on October 24. “We must set up a new one for the next generation and young people. We must reform the current system.” The Alibaba and Ant Group founder, who has spent years advancing the course of an open and market-driven economy in the communist East Asian country, has not been seen in ...
Chelsea boss admits to facing ‘reality check’ after Manchester City drubbing
Chelsea manager Frank Lampard acknowledged that he was given a sharp jolt of reality as the Blues capitulated at home to Manchester City on Sunday. Lampard’s charges have been in torrid form since the start of December, following up a run of nine unbeaten Premier League games with four defeats in their last six outings. The latest, a 3-1 reverse at Stamford Bridge at the hands of City, was concerning not just for the result but also the subdued display offered by the hosts. Chelsea mustered just two shots on target to give debutant goalkeeper Zack Steffen a quiet afternoon between the posts, and only troubled the scorers late into injury time through Callum Hudson-Odoi when the game was already out of reach. And with the Blues having slipped down to eighth as a result of their recent woes,...
PDP: Nigerians fed up with President Buhari’s government
The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), on Sunday, maintained that Nigerians have become fed up with the Muhammadu Buhari administration and are now rallying under the main opposition party. In a statement issued in Abuja by its national spokesman, Kola Ologbondiyan, the PDP described the recent attack on it by presidential spokesman, Garba Shehu, “as a feeble kick of a weak horse, in another failed attempt to beguile Nigerians.” Recall that the presidential spokesman had described the PDP as “a university of lies.” The PDP said it is not surprised that “the Buhari Presidency is rattled by the bitter truth that Nigerians are fed up with President Muhammadu Buhari as well as his All Progressives Congress (APC) and are rallying on our platform to rescue our nation from misrule.” The party noted:...
PDP: Nigerians fed up with President Buhari’s government
The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), on Sunday, maintained that Nigerians have become fed up with the Muhammadu Buhari administration and are now rallying under the main opposition party. In a statement issued in Abuja by its national spokesman, Kola Ologbondiyan, the PDP described the recent attack on it by presidential spokesman, Garba Shehu, “as a feeble kick of a weak horse, in another failed attempt to beguile Nigerians.” Recall that the presidential spokesman had described the PDP as “a university of lies.” The PDP said it is not surprised that “the Buhari Presidency is rattled by the bitter truth that Nigerians are fed up with President Muhammadu Buhari as well as his All Progressives Congress (APC) and are rallying on our platform to rescue our nation from misrule.” The party noted:...
Police arrest two ‘armed robbers’ in Kano
The Police Command in Kano on Wednesday said it arrested two suspected armed robbers who specialised in terrorising residents of Yankaba and Badawa Quarters, Kano. The command’s Public Relations Officer, DSP Abdullahi Haruna, confirmed the arrest in a statement issued to newsmen in Kano. He said that the suspects were apprehended for being in possession of a Pump Action Rifle on Dec. 22 at about 10:30 p.m., by a team of Operation Puff Adder led by CSP Yunusa Danzomo, while on surveillance patrol at Badawa Quarters, Kano. “The suspects have been in the wanted list of the command as at Oct. 21. “During interrogation the suspects confessed to have participated in series of robberies along Hadejia Road by Sheshe Super Market, Yankaba Quarters and Badawa Quarters, Kano. “The second suspect also...
Ogun government creates trust fund for sports development
Ogun State will soon set up a Sports Trust Fund that would help in creating an enabling environment to tap from the multiplier effects of Sporting activities. The State Governor, Prince Dapo Abiodun, stated this when officials of the Nigerian Football Federation (NFF), led by the President, Mr. Amaju Pinnik, paid him a courtesy call in his office at Oke-Mosan, Abeokuta, saying that sports, over time has moved from an entertainment past time to a Money spinning venture. “We are putting in place, a Sports Trust Fund to create enabling environment to engage and enjoy the multiplier effects of Sporting activities. We are going to launch that very soon, so that our sports have enough funding”, he noted. The governor, who described Sports as a means of youth employment, opined that when youths a...
Report: Jack Ma’s Ant Group considers overhaul due to regulatory pressure
Chinese financial technology giant Ant Group plans reorganisation that would allow it to be regulated more like a bank, Bloomberg reports. Jack Ma’s besieged Ant Group Co. is planning to fold its financial operations into a holding company that could be regulated more like a bank, according to people familiar with the situation, potentially crippling the growth of its most-profitable units. The fintech giant is planning to move any unit that would require a financial license into the holding company, pending regulatory approval, said the people, who asked not be named because the matter is private. The plans are still under discussion and subject to change, the people said. Ant declined to comment. The operations that Ant is looking to fold into the holding company include wealth managemen...
CBN: Naira to fall further in January
Barely five days to the end of the year 2020, the Central Bank of Nigeria has disclosed that a survey carried out by its Statistics Department revealed that the naira is expected to depreciate further in January 2021. The report, titled, ‘December 2020 Business Expectations Survey Report’ added that there might also be a steady rise in interest rate from December till the next six months. The naira witnessed a sharp fall in recent weeks, reaching its lowest on November 30, 2020, when it exchanged for N500/$1. Since then, the dollar has been hovering between N460 and N470. As of Friday, however, one dollar exchanged for 465 in the parallel market. Also, the Nigerian economy had on November 21 slid into its second recession in five years when the economy shrank again in the third quarter. Th...
Kebbi governor empowers 205 women vegetable sellers with N6.15 million
The Kebbi Governor, Alhaji Atiku Bagudu, on Sunday, donated N6.15 million to 205 women vegetables sellers in the state as part of efforts to encourage them to be self-reliant. Newsmen report that each of the 205 women received N30,000 from the donation, in order to boost their vegetable businesses. Gov. Bagudu, who announced the donation at the graduation of the benefitting women in Birnin Kebbi, said that all the women who benefitted from the program had received training in preservation of perishable items. “The comprehensive training of the women traders was conducted by the state chapter of the Kebbi State Vegetables Sellers Association,” he said, lauding the association for the unparalleled gesture that was worthy of emulation by other groups. “The association needs to be commended fo...
Nigerian National Assembly spends billions of naira on constitution review
The perennial constitution amendment exercise by the National Assembly is characterised by proposals that keep resurfacing despite gulping billions of naira yearly, an analysis has shown. The federal parliament had from the 5th to the current 9th National Assembly made several attempts to amend some provisions of the 1999 Constitution to no avail. At every session, the parliament officially spends N1 billion shared equally between the Senate and the House of Representatives. There are reports that the lawmakers spend more than what is appropriated for the exercise. While some amendments were successful, several others suffered serial failures but kept appearing in new proposals. Considering the huge spending, lawyers and civil society groups have pointed out that no significant amendments ...