sarafadeen salihu blog

Abuja – Nigeria on Friday in New York expressed full support for an independent international investigation into the Malaysian airline flight disaster in eastern Ukraine, which killed all 298 people on board. Prof Joy Ogwu, the Nigeria’s Permanent Representative to the United Nations, expressed the country’s support at an emergency session of the UN Security Council. In her statement, e-mailed in Abuja, the envoy described the downing of flight MH17 as an “apocalyptic end of the world’’. She said the plane went down in an area under the control of the armed rebel groups, urging the rebels “to co-operate fully and unconditionally with investigations into the crash’’. Ogwu said: “Yesterday at noon, the world watched in horror the downing of the Malaysian jetliner. “What happened yesterday seemed like an apocalyptic end of the world. “I think Samantha Power (the U.S. envoy to the UN) described it somehow (in her speech). “This spectacle is graphically described in the Book of Revel...

It’s reported Chelsea are offering John Obi Mikel to Serie A clubs for just €6m (£4.8m). BRAZIL, Campinas : Nigeria's midfielder John Obi Mikel takes part in a training session in Campinas, Sao Paulo, on June 18, 2014, during the 2014 FIFA Football World Cup. The Nigerian international midfielder has a contract with the Blues until June 2017, but is struggling for playing time. According to Tuttomercatoweb, Chelsea representatives are desperately trying to offload Mikel to an Italian club this summer. Considering the lack of interest in the 27-year-old, they have lowered their asking price to just €6m – around £4.8m. However, there are still no apparent takers for the man who has been at Stamford Bridge since

A French soldier has been killed in a suicide bombing in northern Mali, where local and foreign troops have struggled to restore order after quelling a rebellion last year, officials said. The Foreign Legion soldier, the ninth to die since France intervened in its former colony in January 2013, was killed in the northern city of Gao on Monday, the defence ministry said. France’s intervention in the African country halted the advance of an al-Qaeda-linked armed group who had taken advantage of a Tuareg separatist uprising to occupy swathes of land in the north. France and other Western powers feared the group could further destabilise the region and use the country as a launchpad for foreign attacks. Peace talks were due to begin between Mali government officials and Tuareg rebels in Algeria on Wednesday. French Defence Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian was also set to travel to Mali on Wednesday and President Francois Hollande was due in the region later this week. Both had bee...

Lafia - The Clerk, Nasarawa State House of Assembly¸ Mr Ego Maikeffi, on Tuesday confirmed that Gov. Umaru Al-Makura, had not been served the notice of impeachment. Maikeffi told newsmen that he had made several attempts to serve the governor the notice of impeachment, but was denied access by security personnel at the gate of the government house. He said with the development, the assembly had no option than to serve the impeachment notice through the media on Wednesday. He said that the two days given by the assembly had elapsed. Meanwhile, the Commissioner for Information, Hamza Elayo, said the government was yet to be served officially with the notice of impeachment. “Until government is officially served with the notice, we cannot react,’’ Elayo said. The assembly had on Monday resolved to serve the governor with the notice of impeachment for alleged gross misconduct. This followed a motion of urgent public importance raised by the Deputy Majority Leader, Mr Yahaya...

AFP) – Argentine football legend Diego Maradona said compatriot Lionel Messi did not deserve to be named best player of the World Cup, arguing it should have gone to Colombia’s James Rodriguez. “I’d give Lio the sky, but when it’s not deserved and it’s just marketers who want to make him win something he didn’t win, it’s unfair,” Maradona said Sunday after Argentina lost the World Cup final to Germany 1-0. “Rodriguez was the best player of the World Cup,” said Maradona on his TV program “De Zurda,” which is broadcast by Venezuelan network Telesur and retransmitted in several Latin American countries. The 23-year-old Rodriguez was the revelation of the World Cup and the top scorer with six goals. Messi dazzled in the group stage with four goals, but failed to score in his last four games, including the final. Maradona said Messi himself did not seem to feel he deserved the trophy. “It looked like he didn’t want to take it,” he said. But Maradona praised Argentina and said ...

sarafadeen salihu blog: British sex abuse probe chief quits amid bias fear... : Prime Minister David Cameron’s office said it was “entirely her decision” to step down as lead investigator into allegations of how police a...

sarafadeen salihu blog: British sex abuse probe chief quits amid bias fear... : Prime Minister David Cameron’s office said it was “entirely her decision” to step down as lead investigator into allegations of how police a...

Prime Minister David Cameron’s office said it was “entirely her decision” to step down as lead investigator into allegations of how police and prosecutors handled claims of sexual abuse in the highest levels of Britain’s political establishment during the 1970s, 1980s and 1990s. Long-running rumours about a paedophile ring involving senior politicians have taken on new significance in Britain following a string of scandals about abuse by celebrities including late BBC star Jimmy Savile. In a statement explaining her decision, Butler-Sloss, 80, acknowledged that she “did not sufficiently consider” the impact of her family connections when she accepted the appointment last Tuesday. “It has become apparent over the last few days… that there is a widespread perception, particularly among victim and survivor groups, that I am not the right person to chair the inquiry,” she said. “It has also become clear to me that I did not sufficiently consider whether my background and the fact m...

Thousands of Palestinians are fleeing northern parts of Gaza after Israel warned it was targeting the area in its campaign to stop rocket attacks. The UN says 17,000 people have sought refuge in its facilities as Israeli air strikes continue for a sixth day. Israeli forces have raided a suspected rocket-launching site in Gaza in their first reported ground incursion. At least 159 Palestinians have been killed since Israel's offensive began, according to health officials in Gaza. The dead are said to include 17 members of one family who died in an Israeli missile strike on Saturday evening. Israel says it is targeting Hamas militants and "terror sites", including the homes of senior operatives. However, the United Nations has estimated that 77% of the people killed in Gaza have been civilians. The UN Security Council called for a ceasefire and peace talks on Saturday. In the latest developments A mortar shell or rocket fired from Syria hit the Israeli-o...

The Federal Government of Nigeria has declared that there is a disturbing nexus between major terror attacks in the country and the development landmarks of the President Goodluck Jonathan administration. Prseident Jonathan, Senate President david Mark and other at the scene of the blast at Nyanya , Abuja, Monday. Photo: Olamikan Olugbenga. Prseident Jonathan, Senate President David Mark and other at the scene of the blast at Nyanya. Photo: Olamikan Olugbenga. A pattern, the government said, has emerged whereby almost always when there is need to collectively celebrate an important landmark recorded by it, appears to be the time when the insurgents find pleasure in attacking and making their statement of terror. Information Minister, Mr. Labaran Maku, made this claim in Lagos during an interview. Maku lamented that what had been happening in the past two years was that terrorism had taken the front pages and deprived the country of news of development and social issues. He sai...

The leader of Nigeria’s Boko Haram Islamists has claimed responsibility for a June 25 bombing in the capital Abuja and an attack the same day at a fuel depot in Lagos, in a new video seen by AFP Sunday. The authorities tried to cover up the Lagos attack, describing it as an industrial accident, but an AFP investigation revealed it was a deliberate explosion. The scene of the blast at Apapa. The scene of the blast at Apapa. “I ordered (the bomber) who went and detonated it,” Abubakar Shekau says of the Lagos bomb, while claiming responsibility for the “bomb in filthy Abuja” that killed at least 22 people. - See more at: http://www.vanguardngr.com/2014/07/boko-haram-claim-abuja-lagos-attacks-new-video/#sthash.DK9DdQim.dpuf

tp://m.premiumtimesng.com/?p=164787 The lecturers had been on strike since October last year. The Academic Staff union of Polytechnics, ASUP, has suspended its 10-month-old strike. The strike, which started in October 2013, was suspended on Saturday morning at the National Executive Council, NEC, meeting of the union held in Abuja. The National Publicity Secretary of ASUP, Clement Chirman, confirmed the suspension of the strike to PREMIUM TIMES. He said all striking lecturers have been directed to resume work on Tuesday. The ASUP NEC meeting was held two days after the leadership of the union held a ‘fruitful’ meeting with the new Education Minister, Ibrahim Shekarau, who was sworn in by President Goodluck Jonathan on Wednesday. The ASUP NEC consists of all chapter (polytechnic) chairmen of the union and the national executive of the body. Details later…

Pandemonium broke out yesterday at Obada-oko community in Ewekoro local government area of Ogun state when suspected land speculators and youths engaged in a bloody clash leading over land disputes in the area. One person was reportedly killed while several persons sustained injuries. A lawmaker representing Ewkoro state constituency in the State House of Assembly, Israel Jolaoso narrowly escaped death in the hands of the rampaging land speculators. The development paralyzed commercial activities as the ever-busy old Abeokuta-Lagos road was blocked for several hours for those coming into Abeokuta and those leaving the town . Also, the third term unified examinations in the state public schools were immediately cancelled. Saturday Vanguard gathered that a popular land speculator and his thugs had stormed Obada-oko to execute a land judgment, but met stiff resistance from the youths of the community to a free for all

Sarafadeen salihu: Germany kicks out top US intelligence officer in s... : BERLIN (AFP) – Germany on Thursday expelled the US secret services station chief in Berlin in an escalating row over alleged American spyi...

BERLIN (AFP) – Germany on Thursday expelled the US secret services station chief in Berlin in an escalating row over alleged American spying against its long-time European ally. The worst diplomatic rift in years comes after two suspected US spy cases were uncovered in less than a week in Germany, where anger still simmers over the NSA surveillance scandal sparked by fugitive intelligence contractor Edward Snowden. “The representative of the US intelligence services at the embassy of the United States of America has been told to leave Germany,” government spokesman Steffen Seibert said, announcing a highly unusual move among NATO allies. The demand was based on two probes by German prosecutors of suspected US spying “as well as outstanding questions over the last several months about the activities of the US secret services in Germany”, said Seibert. “The government takes these developments very seriously,” he added in a statement. The White House refused to comment, but th...

ABUJA – PRESIDENT Goodluck Jonathan Thursday forwarded to the senate the names of the Corps Marshal of the Federal Road Safety Corps, FRSC, Mr. Osita Chidoka and Dr. Suleiman Abubakar, a lecturer with the University of Abuja for confirmation as ministers. President Jonathan also wrote the senate seeking for the confirmation of Mrs. Chinelo Anohu-Amaju as the Director General of National Pension Commission PENCOM. Corps Marshal Chidoka is from Anambra state and is expected to occupy the slot for the state which has remained vacant since the exit of the former Minister of Aviation, Princess Stella Oduah, while Dr. Abubakar from Kwara state replaces his kinsman, Malam Bolaji Abdulahi, former Minister of Sports who was recently relieved of his position by the president. The nomination of Mr. Chidoka may have put to rest the rumour that President Jonathan was considering the immediate former governor or Anambra state for ministerial appointment. Investigations revealed that the Kwar...

Brazil were consigned to the ignominy of fighting out a game Dutch coach Louis van Gaal has attacked as “unfair” after their 7-1 semi-final mauling by Germany. Neymar’s absence dominated the build-up to Tuesday’s humiliation. The Barcelona striker missed out after fracturing a vertebrae in the quarter-final win over Colombia. “Neymar will come here (to Brazil’s World Cup base), he’s going to accompany the team to Saturday’s match,” confirmed Brazil football federation spokesman Rodrigo Paiva to R7.com. Paiva announced the news at Brazil’s World Cup headquarters in Teresopolis, near Rio de Janeiro. Medics meanwhile from the superstar striker’s Barcelona club visited him at his home to check up on his injury. A statement on Barcelona’s website reported: “FC Barcelona’s Medical Services visited Neymar Jr at the player’s home in Brazil this week. “The Club’s Medical Services confirmed the CBF’s diagnosis that Neymar had fractured the L3 vertebrae in his back. “The CBF and Bar...

LAGOS — A banker, Musari Ayodele, was yesterday docked before an Igbosere magistrate’s court, in Lagos, for forgery, and stealing N3.2 million, belonging to customers of Skye Bank Plc, at Ikorodu branch. Ayodele, 35, was arraigned before Magistrate O. Olanipekun. The defendant, who resides at 2, Muba Abiru Street in Ebute area of Ikorodu, is facing a two-count charge of stealing and forgery preferred against him by the Police. The defendant, who is a marketing supporting staff of the bank, was said to have committed the offence sometime in 2011. The prosecutor, Innocent Odugbo, told the court that the defendant fraudulently withdrew N3,253,290 belonging to customers and converted same into his use. The prosecutor also alleged that Ayodele forged the signature of one Ganiyu Moshood and withdrew N430,000 from his account. Earlier, the defendant had pleaded not guilty to the charges when they were read to him.

AFP) – Netherlands coach Louis van Gaal lashed out at the World Cup’s third place play-off match on Wednesday after his side’s semi-final defeat to Argentina. Van Gaal’s troops must now travel to Brasilia to face World Cup hosts Brazil on Saturday for a game he believes should have been scrapped years ago. “I think this match should never be played,” van Gaal told reporters. “I’ve been saying this for 10 years. But we’ll just have to play this match.” Van Gaal said the match condemns the losers to finish a tournament after another defeat, and that one side always has an extra day’s rest. “It’s unfair also because we have one less day to recover, so that’s not fair play,” he said. “But the worst thing is that chances are you lose twice in a row. “And after a tournament in which you’ve played so marvellously well, you’d go home as a loser just because you’ve lost the last two matches. “This has got nothing whatsoever to do with sport. “But I said this 15 years ago. You sho...