Photos: Man U flop players arrive England looking dejected after Champions league exit

 

 

  The footballers looked unhappy as they arrived England following their defeat in Germany last night. The club needed at least a point against Wolfsburg to qualify from the champions League group stage to the knockout stage but unfortunately came up short losing 3-2. See more pics after the cut

 

Photo: Third suicide bomber in Paris terror attacks identified

 

 

The third suicide bomber behind the terrorist attacks at Bataclan concert hall has been identified as Foued Mohamed Aggad, Le Parisian reports.

The 23-year-old from Strasbourg, bursts into an Eagles of Death Metal performance in the venue where 89 people were killed by gunfire and explosions. French authorities learned of Mohamed's identity through DNA evidence more than a week ago, but waited until today to reveal his name.

 

According to AFP, Mohamed Aggad traveled to Syria with his older brother and friends from Strasbourg near the end of 2013, but several of his party including his brother were detained upon re entering in France.

Photos: APC members in Bayelsa stage protest over INEC's cancellation of Southern Ijaw results

 

 

APC members in Bayelsa state are currently staging a protest, demanding the release of the voting results collated at Southern Ijaw during last Saturday's governorship election in the state. INEC cancelled the results in the area and declared the election inconclusive.

A Phone Thief Beaten In Lagos

 This morning at Ikeja Under bridge, a thief was caught as he picked two phones from an innocent Lady’s bag. People’s attention were drawn to the incident as the girl screamed and ran after him. Good citizens of Lagos joined in the race and in due time caught up with the thief. Before long, he was covered by angry mobs. A police officer came to his rescue just as he was being beaten by people.
We bring to you pictures of the incident below

The angry mob set upon the phone snatcher in yellow shirt

Like Deus ex Machina, a police woman appeared on the scene to save him from being lynched

After being rough handled and slapped a few times, the police woman prevailed on the mob.

Is it justified to beat a thief or hand him over to the police? What do you think?

Fashola unveils agenda for roads, power and housing

The Minister of Power, Works and Housing, Babatunde Fashola (SAN), has officially unveiled his short term plans to address housing deficits, provide good roads and urgently increase power generation in the country with extra 2, 000 megawatts.



Fashola said, during his maiden press briefing in Abuja that the Lagos-Ibadan expressway which has been under construction and the second Niger Bridge are of great importance to the current administration, thus would get urgent attention.

He said year 2002 was the last time the sum of N200 billion was budgeted for road constructions in the country.

The Minister further disclosed that work would soon commence on all roads that link the 36 States of the federation, adding that major roads which had been suspended due to paucity of funds and are vital to boost social economic activities in the country would be quickly revisited.

It was Fashola’s maiden briefing since his resumption to office.

He spoke on plans to partner with the private sector and fully privatise the power sector in order for the country to witness genuine development like the telecommunication.

Part of his plans is also to immediately restore the jobs of construction workers who were laid off by local and international construction companies in the country.

His words: “The records that have been made available from previous budgets show that the last time Nigeria budgeted over N200 Billion in a year’s budget for roads was in 2002. It seems that as our income from oil prices increased over the last decade, our spending on roads decreased.

“As far as status reports go, the federal government budgeted N18.132Billion in 2015 and the Ministry of Works got N13Billion for all roads and highways in 2015, although it has contracts for 206 roads, covering over 6,000km with contract price of over N2 Trillion.”

‎However, Fashola stated that government’s ability to achieve connectivity of Inter-state roads would largely depend on capital spending in the 2016 budget.

He said it became imperative to pay contractors and get them back to work as soon as possible.

“Our short term strategy will be to start with roads that have made some progress and can be quickly completed to facilitate connectivity. We will prioritize within this strategy by choosing first the roads that connect states together and from that grouping start with those that bear the heaviest traffic.

“As at May 2015, many contractors have stopped work because of payment, and many fathers and wives employed by them have been laid off as a result.

“Some of the numbers from only four companies that were sampled, suggest that at least 5,150 workers have been laid as at March 11, 2015; and if we realize that there are at least 200 contracts pending, on the basis of 1(one) company per contract,” he said.

Analysing the unfortunate situation, Fashola explained that, “If each contractor has only 100 employees at each of the 200 contract sites, it means at least that 20,000 people who lost their jobs can return to work if the right budget is put in place and funded for contractors to get paid.

“The possibility to return those who have just lost their jobs back to work is the kind of change that we expect to see by this short term strategy.”

“In order to make the roads safer, we intend to re-claim the full width and set back of all Federal roads, representing 16% and about 36,000km of Nigeria’s road network by immediately now asking all those who are infringing on our highways, whether by parking, trading, or erection of any inappropriate structure to immediately remove, relocate or dismantle such things voluntarily. This will be the biggest contribution that citizens can offer our country as proof that we all want things to change for the better,” Fashola added.

EFCC charges Dokpesi, Dasuki others with money laundering

The Federal Government, yesterday, slammed 43-count charge on former National Security Adviser, Col. Sambo Dasuki (retd); former Minister of State for Finance, Bashir Yuguda; former Sokoto State Governor, Attahiru Bafarawa and his son, Sagir.

Others charged with them by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission on behalf of the Federal Government are: High Chief Raymond Dokpesi, founder and Chairman Emeritus of Daar Communications Plc and Daar Investment and Holdings Limited; former Finance Director in the office of the NSA, Shuaibu Salisu and Aminu Baba Kusa.


Other suspects charged by the anti-graft agency are private companies said to have received huge sums from the ONSA without any clear and specified reasons.

They are: Acacia Holdings Limited, Reliance Referral Hospital Limited and Dalhatu Investments Limited.

A breakdown of the charges, which Vanguard obtained last night, showed that the former NSA, Dasuki, Shauibu Salisu, Aminu Baba Kusa, Acacia Holdings Limited and Reliance Referral Hospital Limited were slammed with a total of 19 charges bordering on money laundering, diversion of public funds and breach of public trust among others.

Similarly, Bashir Yuguda, Sambo Dasuki, Shuaibu Salisu, Dalhatu Investment Ltd, Sagir Attahiru and Attahiru Bafarawa were charged with 22 counts.

High Chief Dokpesi and his company, Daar Investment and Holdings Limited were slammed with two counts each.

The cases have been filed with the Federal High Court but not yet assigned to any judge, according to findings by our correspondent.

Vanguard had reported exclusively on Monday that the EFCC was set to press charges against the suspects this week but did not specify the date.

The agency had used most part of last Sunday grilling the suspects and confronting them with details of the illicit transactions that made the Federal Government to lose huge sums of money.

Dasuki has already challenged the Federal Government for trying to investigate and bring him to book for the alleged offence and breach of his fundamental rights.

The case is before Justice Ademola Adeniyi.

Also, Dokpesi in an ex-parte application he filed through his lawyer, Mr. Mike Ozehkome, SAN, urged the court to grant him bail on liberal terms, pending his formal arraignment before a court of competent jurisdiction.

Instead of granting the motion, Justice Kolawole, in a chamber ruling last Friday, ordered Dokpesi’s lawyer to go and put the Federal Government on notice, even as he adjourned the matter till December 14.

The court also directed EFCC to produce Dokpesi before it on that day.

However, few hours after the order was made, EFCC granted administrative bail to Dokpesi.

In his application dated December 3, Dokpesi told the court that he was detained for more than 48 hours without the EFCC entering any charge against him.

Ozehkome told the court that his client was on December 1 summoned via the telephone to report to the EFCC headquarters in Abuja.

He said Dokpesi has since then remained in custody on the anti-graft agency, adding that he was grilled for so many hours despite the fact that he did not have fore knowledge of why he was wanted by the EFCC.

Buhari is inflicting serious hardship on Nigerians - PDP

The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) has told President Muhammadu Buhari that his policies and apparent lack of viable economic initiatives are currently inflicting hardship on Nigerians.

PDP’s National Publicity Secretary, Chief Olisa Metuh, in a statement on Tuesday said it is disheartening that the Buhari administration had remained insensitive and unresponsive to the groaning of Nigerians occasioned by the apparent lack of competent hands in the management of the economy.



“Rather than evolving economic initiatives to improve the lot of the citizens, this administration has in the last seven months churned out policies that stifle productivity in the formal and informal sectors, thereby inflicting hardship on them. This has resulted in the semi-destruction of the long-standing extended family system in our society.

“It is a statement of fact that under President Buhari’s watch, the nation has witnessed the gloomiest festive season. Under this government, Nigerians have had the worst Sallah celebration and by all indications, this Christmas season is going to be the bleakest ever.

“More worrisome is the fact that there is no indication that the government has any plan for ameliorating the hardship of the people. Instead, the situation may get worse as this administration, in its lack of economic initiatives, is now rolling up its sleeves to introduce some stringent tax policies, in addition to completely removing the social palliatives Nigerians benefit from,” it said.

On the issue of the persisting fuel queues across the country, the PDP demanded that the government come clean, asking: “Is it market driven or a product of government conspiracy? Our take is that if indeed it is true that the government has a hand in this fuel crisis, then they should have a rethink and show pity on innocent Nigerians.

“We, therefore, align with the people in declaring that this administration is unprepared for governance. President Buhari and his party came to power on propaganda, deceit and falsehood and the government has now shown lack of initiatives and the required competence to successfully move the nation forward,” it stated.

The party said it was saddening that a government that came to power on a mantra of change now sought to chain the ways and means of the very people that they deceived into voting for them.

“We advice the government to note that any attempt to increase taxes and duties will overstretch the lean income of ordinary Nigerians and gradually inflict intolerable poverty in the land,” it added.

What can we do to make Igbo feel they belong,not alienated – Soyinka

Nobel laureate, Professor Wole Soyinka, has urged the Federal Government to employ more diplomacy in handling the agitation for the Republic of Biafra.


Soyinka said statements like “Nigeria is indivisible”, “This won’t happen under my watch,” “Nigeria’s unity is non-negotiable” would not help matters.



The Nobel laureate spoke in an interview on Channels Television programme, Channels Books’ Club.

Agitation for the Republic of Biafra gained more traction recently following the arrest of Director of outlawed Biafra Radio, Nnamdi Kanu.

The protesters had taken over the Niger Bridge, Onitsha, Anambra State blocking traffic and it took the intervention of security agents before they could be dislodged, leaving some persons dead in its wake.

Soyinka asked President Muhammadu Buhari to approach the agitation in a more diplomatic way, pointing out that he had said earlier that Biafra cannot be defeated.

According to him, ”Once an idea has taken off, you may defeat those behind it in a war but that does not mean the end of the idea.”

But he lamented that he had been misunderstood at the time.

He said the attitude of the government should be to sit down with the those leading the renewed agitation and ask: “What can we do to make the Igbo feel part of the country, what can we do to make them to feel that they belong and not alienated.

“This is what we are ready to push for in the overall governance content of the country. It is not to be carrying on that this will not happen under my watch; Nigeria is indivisible, Nigeria’s unity is non-negotiable, he stated”

Scientists confirm new sexual disease

Scientists in the United Kingdom have confirmed the existence of a new sexually transmitted disease called mycoplasma genitalium.

The confirmation of the bacterial disease, which causes painful urination among other things, as an STD comes more than two decades after it was first discovered.

A team of fourteen researchers arrived at the conclusion after conducting a national survey of the sexual lifestyles and attitudes of British men and women.



The researchers said the study, which involved the testing urine from 4,507 sexually experienced participants aged 16 to 44 years for MG, “strengthens evidence that MG is an STI”.

They added, “MG was identified in over one per cent of the population, including in men with high-risk behaviours in older age groups that are often not included in STI prevention measures.”

The study found that men of black ethnicity were more likely to test positive for MG and showed that the prevalence of the disease was 1.2 per cent in men and 1.3 per cent in women.

It also found that for both men and women, the disease was strongly associated with reporting risk behaviours such as increasing the number of total and new partners and unsafe sex in the past year.

Although it recorded no positive MG tests in men aged 16 to19, prevalence peaked at 2.1 per cent in men aged 25–34 years, while prevalence in was highest in 16 to 19-year-olds at 2.4 per cent and decrease with age.

It added, “Men with MG were more likely to report previously diagnosed gonorrhoea, syphilis or non-specific urethritis, and women previous trichomoniasis.”

Health.com in an article on about the study quoted a clinical associate professor, Raquel Dardik, as saying the symptoms for women included irritation, painful urination and bleeding after sex, while those for men included painful urination and watery discharge from the penis.

According to the article, the disease has been linked to both inflammation in the cervix (cervicitis) and pelvic inflammatory disease, which is a serious condition often caused by other STDs like chlamydia and gonorrhea.

Dardik was also quoted as saying that around 10 per cent of women who develop PID (which causes abdominal pain, fever, painful cervix, and pain or bleeding during sex), could blame MG as the underlying cause.

She, however, said people could get tested for MD and that it was treatable with the antibiotic azithromycin, adding that the use of condoms was an effective way of preventing it.

Dr. Jorgen Jensen of the Mycoplasma Laboratory, Statens Serum Institut in Denmark, however, said although the single-dose azithromycin treatment was best for MG, it was not good enough.

He explained in an article published in an issue of Clinical Infectious Diseases that although initial in vitro studies suggested that antibiotics of the tetracycline class were active, clinical experience soon demonstrated their inefficiency in producing both microbiologic and clinical cure.

He added that two recently published observational studies of 120 Australian and 183 Norwegian MG-positive patients found that only 84 per cent and 79 per cent, respectively, were cured by a single 1-g dose of azithromycin.

Jensen said, “(A study the study by) Mena et al provides a clear-cut answer to the question of whether multidose doxycycline or single-dose azithromycin is most efficient for the treatment of M. genitalium—positive urethritis; undoubtedly, azithromycin is best. However, it is not good enough, and additional studies of new approaches are definitely needed.”

Thousands celebrate as millionaire becomes Yoruba’s most powerful monarch

A 41-year-old multi-millionaire was on Monday officially installed as the new Ooni of Ife — the most powerful and influential traditional monarch among the Yoruba people of southwest Nigeria.

Adeyeye Enitan Ogunwusi succeeded Ife’s 50th ooni, Okunade Sijuade, who died in July after a 35-year reign as paramount ruler and spiritual leader.

Tens of thousands celebrated on the streets of the ancient city to which historically all ethnic Yoruba, including those as far away as Togo, Brazil and Trinidad and Tobago, can trace their origins.



The Yoruba, who predominate in six southwestern Nigerian states, number some 40 million and make up the country’s second-largest ethnic group after the Hausa-Fulani.

Historically, the Ooni or any king in Yorubaland was revered and considered “the sovereign, second in rank to the gods”. His decision was considered final.

The powers of the Yoruba kings and other traditional rulers were reduced under British colonial rule, said Abimbola Adesoji, head historian at Obafemi Awolowo University in Ile-Ife.

“Now, they (kings) are mostly titular heads. Their relevance depends on how influential they are or how they can use their influence to benefit their subjects,” he told AFP.

Today, though still regarded as custodians of culture and supreme heads of local communities, they are paid public functionaries but not assigned any specific role in the constitution.

– ‘God-given’ role –

Ogunwusi, dressed in white, with a white ceremonial head covering and white-beaded walking stick, was presented with his staff of office to loud applause from the crowd and dignitaries including Vice President Yemi Osinbajo.

“God has actually prepared me for this throne,” he told guests at the ceremony, which was transmitted via large screens outside the coronation venue and live on some television channels.

“I will dedicate the staff of office just given to me to the youth of Ile-Ife, Osun state and the entire country.”

Ogunwusi , a trained accountant, made his fortune mostly from real estate and marketing, including products of commodities magnate Aliko Dangote, Africa’s richest man.

Ogunwusi is also chairman of Gran Imperio Group, a leading real estate and construction company.

The Vanguard newspaper described Ogunwusi as “an astute entrepreneur driven by turning impossibilities to ‘possibilities'”.

A prince from one of the ruling houses in the Ife kingdom, Ogunwusi is the son of a retired radio and television broadcaster and was selected from more than 20 candidates.

Born on October 17, 1974, he is one of Nigeria’s youngest traditional rulers.

– High expectations –

Because of his wealth and close connection with powerful Nigerians, many locals who turned out for the coronation have high expectations.

“I am so happy that our new king is young, energetic and well-connected with powerful people,” said Tomi Omodunbi.

“He should improve the social infrastructure and provide jobs for the teeming youth population in the town.”

For Joseph Muda Awowole, 58, a radio repairer in Ile-Ife, the new king “should do well for the Ife people, listen to advice and behave maturely in handling matters, despite his age”.

Felix Bunmi Adegoke, a beer seller, said the king was “a good omen for the town.

“We have accepted him as our king. He is young and rich. He should use his vast connection for the benefit of Ile-Ife.”

Afusatu Layade, a 34-year-old pepper trader in Ile-Ife’s largest market, said: “I am happy that this is happening in my lifetime.

“I have a lot of hope in him that he will take Ile-Ife to greater heights.”