Author: Samuel Akpenpuun

Erik ten Hag has signed a contract extension that keeps him at Old Trafford until 2026, the Premier League club announced on Thursday. There had been intense speculation over the Dutchman’s future after a poor 2023/24 Premier League campaign but he guided the club to FA Cup success against Manchester City. It was widely leaked in the British media last month that after a review by the club’s new part-owner, British billionaire Jim Ratcliffe, Ten Hag would be staying at the club. “Erik ten Hag has extended his contract as Manchester United men’s first-team manager until June 2026,” United said…

The authorities of the University of Benin (UNIBEN) on Thursday shut down academic activities in the institution indefinitely. The university, in a statement by its Public Relations Officer, Dr Benedicta Ehanire, attributed the decision to the refusal of the students to shift grounds on their demands. The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) recalls that the students on Wednesday took to the streets, blocking the ever-busy Benin-Ore Highway, to protest weeks of power outages on campus. The students, who had two weeks until their first semester examination, said the situation was severely affecting their preparation. The students also called for a…

The Joint Admissions and Matriculations Board has uncovered 3,000 fake graduates who never set foot within the four walls of a classroom. The board also decried the issue of illegal admissions by some institutions which, it said, had remained a source of embarrassment to the country. The Registrar, Prof Ishaq Oloyede, made this known in a report published in the board’s bulletin, which was obtained by our correspondent in Abuja. According to the bulletin, Oloyede disclosed this during a meeting with the leadership of the Committee of Pro-Chancellors of State Universities. “Some ‘graduates’ had never entered the four walls of…

LeBron James will return to the Los Angeles Lakers next season after agreeing a new two-year $104 million deal with the club, multiple US reports said Wednesday. James, who will turn 40 in December, opted out of his existing deal with the club last week in a move analysts said would free up more money to recruit new players. The NBA superstar had been widely expected to re-sign with the Lakers particularly after the team drafted his eldest son, Bronny James, last week. James has long spoken of his desire to play in the NBA alongside his son. ESPN and…

UK Prime Minister Rishi Sunak has delivered food to the residents as part of last-minute efforts to woo voters in the national elections scheduled for Thursday, July 4. A UK citizen, Katherine Forster expressed surprise to receive her egg muffin order delivered by Sunak. The UK Prime Minister could be seen beaming with a wide smile at 6:20 a.m. on Tuesday. Forster posted her brief encounter with the British PM on X where Sunak was criticised for using devious methods to sway voters less than 48 hours before election day. “Had probably hundreds of McDonalds breakfasts in my life….not usually…

The Senate has begun probe into the continued importation of hazardous petroleum products and dumping of substandard diesel into Nigeria and the activities of the Petroleum Equalisation Fund, including payments made to transporters in the last 10 years. The Senate has therefore set up a 15- Member Ad- hoc Committee to carry out a holistic investigation into the pre-shipment and pre-discharge standard test parameters, adopted by the Nigerian Midstream and Downstream Regulatory Authority, with a view to uncovering loopholes, if any, exploited to get toxic cargoes into the country. Setting up the Committee yesterday in Abuja, the President of the…

The National Labour Congress, NLC, the governors’ interference in the national minimum wage negotiation is unconstitutional. The head of information and public affairs for the National Labour Congress (NLC), Benson Upah, stated this in an interview on Arise Television on Monday. Upah addressed the NLC’s staunch refusal to allow governors to influence the determination of the minimum wage. He said, “The process for arriving at a national minimum wage comprises three parties, which is labour, employers, and government. The government is currently playing a dual role of being the employer as well. “Governors have been part of this process, and…

The Senate has gone into an executive session to discuss a matter of ‘privilege’ involving the Senator representing the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), Ireti Kingibe. Kingibe and the Minister of the FCT, Mr Nyesom Wike, have been engaging each other in a public row. Only on Monday, Wike had threatened that Kingibe would lose a bid to return to the Senate in 2027, so long as he remained the FCT Minister. On her part, Kingibe had publicly complained that Wike completely sidelined her in the running of the affairs of the FCT. Recall that prior to when the Senate proceeded…

Ghanaian chef Ebenezer Smith, who claimed to have broken the Guinness World Record (GWR) for the longest cooking marathon by an individual, has been arrested. In its Tuesday report, Asaase Radio—a privately owned radio station in Accra, broke the news. The radio station stated that the chef was arrested and detained at the La police station on Tuesday, shortly after he announced his achievements during a press conference in the La Palm Royal Beach Hotel in Accra. The chef was arrested for allegedly defrauding one of the sponsors, Amadia Shopping Mall, of about GHC350,000 from his cooking marathon. BBC reported…

The Lagos State Government on Wednesday called for calm over the flash flood caused by the torrential rainfall experienced throughout the state. The Commissioner for the Environment and Water Resources, Mr Tokunbo Wahab, made the plea in a statement on Wednesday in Lagos. “Lagos has experienced about nine hours of non-stop rainfall since the early hours of Wednesday. “This is coupled with the heavy rainfall which the state has been experiencing daily since the previous week resulting in the rise in level of the Lagos lagoon,” Wahab said. He said the flash floods which inundated areas such as Iyana-Oworo linking…