Author: Samuel Akpenpuun

Cristiano Ronaldo will start Portugal’s final Group F match against Georgia at Euro 2024, coach Roberto Martinez said on Tuesday. Veteran forward Ronaldo, 39, could become the oldest player to score at a European Championship during Wednesday’s match in Gelsenkirchen, after Croatia’s Luka Modric claimed the record on Monday night. Ronaldo is yet to score at this Euros but did set up Bruno Fernandes in Portugal’s previous 3-0 win over Turkey, which sealed top spot in the group. “I can tell you that the captain will be in the starting XI, he played one preparation game, he had a very…

Olamide, the Grammy award-nominated rapper has revealed the tracklist for his forthcoming project tagged “Ikigai Vol 1.” The new project contains seven tracks and features label mates Asake, Fireboy DML, and former label mate Lil Kesh alongside producer/artiste Young Johnn and Pheelz. The announcement of the album comes barely hours after Olamide performed at Davido’s and Chioma’s wedding ceremony. Ikigai is a Japanese word which means to live. It continues Olamide’s trademark of unusual album naming. It will be recalled that in 2020, Olamide titled his album “Carpe Diem,” a Latin word which means “Seize the day.” In 2021, he…

Former Kaduna State Governor, Nasir El-Rufai, has sued the Kaduna State House of Assembly over the latter’s claim that his eight-year administration allegedly siphoned ₦432bn leaving the state with huge debt liabilities. El-Rufai filed a fundamenatal rights suit at Federal High Court in Kaduna against state House of Assembly on Wednesday. The suit, filed by the ex-governor’s lawyer Abdulhakeem Mustapha, a Senior Advocate of Nigeria, challenged the report of the Kaduna Assembly Committee which indicted El-Rufai for alleged corruption. Stay tuned for more details…

Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) University of Ilorin branch yesterday chided the federal government over unjustifiable delay in payment of the outstanding balance of the three and a half months of withheld salaries of the members of the nation’s universities. The union also criticised the federal government over appointments of aged Nigerians as members of tertiary institutions governing councils, saying that it’s unacceptable that Octogenarians would drive the development agenda of 24th century. “Go and see the compositions of the people appointed across the governing council of our tertiary institutions; you are looking at people that are old. As…

Former home secretary Suella Braverman has told the BBC she still has the 24-hour personal protection she was given while in government because of the threats and harassment she receives. On a recent trip to a supermarket, she said people called her “a genocidal bleep” in front of her children. The government announced a £31m budget for security for politicians in February. The extra money follows the murder of MPs Jo Cox in 2016 and Sir David Amess in 2021. For the first time, all election candidates now have access to panic alarms and a named police contact to liaise…

Elder statesman Chief Edwin Clark has, again, pleaded with President Bola Tinubu to help halt what he described as the threatening political crisis in Rivers State. Clark, in an open letter to the president, advised that the “small fire” in Rivers State should be quenched immediately and not allowed to conflagrate further. The southern leader, nonetheless, congratulated the president for dousing tension in the state when he said he wouldn’t take sides in the unfolding crisis between the governor Siminalayi Fubara and the minister of Federal Capital Territory (FCT) Nyesom Wike. The Niger Delta leader urged the president to call…

Lagos Governor Babajide Sanwo-Olu has reiterated his administration’s resolve to complete the 70 million-gallon-per-day Adiyan Water Project which was abandoned for years. Sanwo-Olu made the promise at the fifth Lagos International Water Conference. He noted that the project would have to be completed in the next one year. The conference had as theme ‘Financing Water and Sanitation for a Greater Lagos’. Sanwo-Olu highlighted the importance of financial resources in achieving the goals of water security, accessibility and sustainability. He said: “For us, it is not just about lip service. We want to move away from rhetorics, we want action. Let…

The federal government has announced a ban on single-use plastics across all Ministries, Departments, and Agencies (MDAs). Minister of State for Environment, Iziaq Adekunle Salako, disclosed this to journalists after the Federal Executive Council (FEC), which was presided over by President Bola Tinubu at the State House in Abuja. Speaking to State House correspondents after the meeting, Salako emphasised that this ban aligns with the government’s broader plastic waste management strategy. He said: “This initiative demonstrates our commitment to addressing the triple threat of climate change, biodiversity loss, and pollution”. The minister highlighted the severity of plastic pollution in Nigeria,…

The House of Representatives Committee on Corporate Social Responsibility (SCR) on Tuesday moved to enact laws to sanction offenders. This is also as the committee gave MTN, Airtel last warning to honour its invitation or face the warrant of arrest by the Commitee. The Chairman of the Committee on Corporate Social Responsibility, Hon Oby Orogbu, stated these during a public hearing on “A bill to regulate corporate social Responsibility in Nigeria and for other related matters” held in Abuja. According to Orogbu, some companies operating in the country have over time violated the law, hence the need for punishment to…

Some irate protesters, yesterday, attacked the Chairman of the All Progressives Congress, APC, in Lagos State, Mr. Cornelius Ojelabi, at the party’s Secretariat on Acme Road, in Ogba, during a peace parley to reconcile two warring factions in the Alimosho Local Government Area of the state. A viral video of the attack showed where Ojelabi was tossed around by the placard-carrying protesters before security operatives were deployed to rescue him from the grip. The aggrieved APC members accused the chairman of bias in the lingering crisis between two factional leaders in the Alimosho area, who are former Reps member, Mr…