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Nasarawa United FC chairman, Barrister Isaac Danladi, boasted yesterday that his Solid Miners will be too strong for FC IfeanyiUbah when both teams clash in the Federation Cup final on Sunday. For the second year running, a new winner is bound to emerge for the oldest competition in the land when the Miners and Anambra Warriors tango for 90 minutes on the artificial turf of the Teslim Balogun Stadium. “We are very focused on winning this competition. For one week, we camped in Ibadan to avoid distractions, and we have confidence that we are ready to go for it on Sunday,” Danladi told thenff.com. The Lafia-based club will hope to benefit from their experience in playing in the continent this year, when they reached the second round of the CAF Confederation Cup before losing to CS Constantinois of Algeria. FC IfeanyiUbah have some pedigree as well. The Club is only two years old and after finishing 11th in the Nigeria Professional Football League in their first season, finished in 4th p...

Super Eagles goalkeeper, Daniel Akpeyi, has said he is 100% ready for the World Cup qualifying clash against the Desert Foxes of Algeria. The Chippa United shot stopper was a late call up for the crucial 2018 FIFA World Cup clash against the North Africans on November 12 at the Godswill Akpabio International Stadium in Uyo, Akwa Ibom State. The Olympian was omitted in the initial roll calls by Eagles manager, Gernot Rohr, but injury on Wolverhampton Wanderers goal tender, Carl Ikeme, ensured the immediate fall back on the former Heartland and Warri Wolves safe hands. Daniel Akpeyi Akpeyi told supersport,com he considers the late call up as a rare honour and privilege even though he was cocksure he merited the early invitation. “Of course, I consider it always an honour and privilege to serve my fatherland. I’m happy with the call up as I’m 100% fit and determined to justify my inclusion in the game against the Algerian opponents, Desert Foxes. “The truth is that I had looked forw...

Super Falcons’ Head Coach, Florence Omagbemi, has elected to release players of Rivers Angels and Bayelsa Queens in the Senior Women National Team camp for Sunday’s potentially explosive women Federation Cup final between both teams in Lagos. Omagbemi The member of FIFA Technical Study said the ladies would be allowed to leave the team’s camp in Abuja to travel to Lagos for the big clash, which starts at 1pm at the Teslim Balogun Stadium on Sunday. That decision has freed Angels’ half dozen of goalkeeper Ibubeleye Whyte, defenders Osinachi Ohale, Ugo Njoku and Gladys Akpa and midfielders Chioma Wogu and Glory Iroka to be part of the glamour event, to be attended by the Governors of Lagos, Anambra, Nasarawa, Bayelsa and Rivers States. Bayelsa Queens’ duo of goalkeeper Alaba Jonathan and playmaker Osarenoma Igbinovia will also be on duty. The involvement of the Super Falcons’ stars will certainly boost the quality of the final match, and ensure the two teams do not miss their Falco...

The Nigeria Football Federation (NFF) has explained why it decided that the U-17 National Team, Golden Eaglets, participate in the forthcoming 2016 U-19 Suwon Continental Cup tournament. A team of 22 players and 10 officials of the Golden Eaglets will depart Nigeria on Monday, 7th November for Korea Republic, for the U-19 Suwon Continental Cup. General Secretary, Dr. Mohammed Sanusi, said yesterday that the Federation is encouraged to sustain the team’s momentum and prepare it for bigger challenges as a result of the series of examinations done to ascertain the fact they are truly U17 players. “Apart from the tests conducted by the NFF, there was a medical team from CAF that subjected the players to another thorough examination. We are very sure the boys are U17 players and we must do everything to prepare them for bigger challenges, as they will constitute the next U20 team. “They showed naivety and a level of innocence in the way they approached the match in Niger Republic, and that...

The Chinese owners of Inter Milan have flown in to choose a successor to Frank de Boer after the Dutch coach’s unceremonious sacking earlier in the week. De boer Inter clashed with Southampton in the Europa League last night which the club’s youth team coach, Stefano Vecchi, handled. But with Inter languishing in 12th place in the league and 13 points behind leaders Juventus, the Suning group – which has owned the Serie A giants since the start of the season – is desperate to quickly make a permanent appointment. According to AFP reports former Lazio coach, Stefano Pioli, leads the race to succeed de Boer, who was sacked last Tuesday following a 1-0 defeat at Sampdoria, Inter’s fifth loss in 11 outings. But Inter’s owners will consider other options in what Gazzetta dello Sport said was “a crucial day of talks” involving Steven Zhang, son of club owner Jindong Zhang, and fellow board member Ren June.

About 240 migrants are believed drowned in two shipwrecks off the coast of Libya, migration officials say. “The United Nations High Commission for Refugees is informed that survivors are brought ashore on the Italian island of Lampedusa,” spokeswoman Carlotta Sami said yesterday. No bodies have so far been recovered. “More than 4, 200 migrants have died making the dangerous journey across the Mediterranean Sea this year,” International Organization of Migration spokesman, Leonard Doyle, said. The UN has warned 2016 could be the deadliest for migrants making the journey. Nearly 330, 000 migrants have crossed the sea so far this year, compared with more than one million in 2015. Many of those killed in the latest two incidents are believed to be migrants from West Africa. Sami said 29 people had survived one of the shipwrecks but about 120 others were missing, feared dead. In the second, two people were picked up after swimming for safety but another 120 migrants were still missing. Smu...

Reports yesterday said polls are tightening as the race to become the 45th President of the United States enters its last days, with Donald Trump attempting to capitalise on Hillary Clinton’s latest email scandal. The news that the FBI has reopened its investigation into Clinton’s use of a private server to send, receive and store government emails has handed Trump an unexpected boost ahead of November 8. The FBI has obtained a warrant to begin searching newly discovered emails belonging to Huma Abedin, a top aide of Clinton, with Clinton’s use of emails also in the spotlight. There is no sign that this new investigation will be completed by election day and it seems that Clinton will have to fight the final days of her campaign with unspecified allegations hanging over her. This is ideal for Trump who was shown to be as many as 14 points behind Clinton in some polls before this latest scandal. Clinton has been ahead almost continuously in the polls, which takes an average of the las...

The degrading of the Nigerian judiciary in whatever manner should ordinarily be of concern to all. But comments of the type Buhari made in Ethiopia should prick the heart of the bench in an exceptional way; particularly that section of it governed by good conscience, moral uprightness and principle. By its conservative nature, the bench is not traditionally given to media hypes, whether for good or for bad; except through its key heads. The other group that should naturally be agitated, or better still, sobered down by President Buhari’s scarcely flattering view of the Nigerian judiciary, if hypocrisy is not permitted to prevail, is the bar (the legal profession), whose bad eggs are the major accomplices in the drift and ruin of the Nigerian judiciary. It is not for the fun of it that critics lump the bench and the bar together as one when they appraise the ongoing anti-graft campaign of the Federal Government these days. Some Nigerians based in the United Kingdom, under the umbrella ...

The EU’s Digital Economy Commissioner, Guenther Oettinger, has formally apologised for making derogatory remarks about Chinese officials. “I would like to apologise for any remark that was not as respectful as it should have been,” Oettinger said yesterday. In a speech to German business leaders he had spoken of Chinese officials having “hair combed with black shoe polish” and called them “slitty-eyed”. China reacted, saying Oettinger had revealed a “baffling sense of superiority”. The German official has been named as the next EU budget commissioner, replacing Bulgaria’s Kristalina Georgieva who resigned last month to take up the post of World Bank CEO.

Egypt has floated its currency in a move that has reduced its value by almost 50 per cent against the dollar. One US dollar is buying around 14 Egyptian pounds, up from the nine Egyptian pounds the central bank was trying to keep it at. The country’s Central Bank said the move was one of a list of reforms designed to strengthen confidence in the economy. Egypt’s main stock index jumped by more than 8 per cent yesterday. The central bank has also increased interest rates by 3 percentage points to 14.75 per cent. The move is a key requirement of the International Monetary Fund (IMF), from which Egypt is asking for a $12bn loan over three years. The IMF’s Mission Chief for Egypt, Chris Jarvis, said the move would make more foreign exchange available and would “help foster growth, job creation and stronger external position for the country”.

President Muhammadu Buhari penultimate Wednesday inaugurated the Presidential Committee on North East Initiative (PCNI), to develop the strategy and implementation framework for rebuilding the North East region. The committee with a three-year lifespan would draw funds from Federal, State and Local Government appropriation, as well as the private sector and international development partners. The Committee was set up late last year under the headship of Lieutenant-General Theophilus Danjuma (rtd) as Federal Government’s short-term strategy to alleviate hardship, and a longterm plan to build the infrastructure that most closely affected the economic life of the most vulnerable citizens. “The devastation to human lives and livelihoods by the insurgency in the North East is severe, with more than an estimated 20,000 persons killed, an estimated 2.4 million persons displaced and billions of naira worth of personal and public assets destroyed”, President Buhari stated at the inauguration. ...

The ISIS group has released an audiotape which it says is from its leader, Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, ordering Iraqis to defend the city of Mosul against the Iraqi army. The recording has not been verified yet but analysts believe it is genuine. Baghdadi’s whereabouts are unknown. Some officials have said he may be inside Mosul alongside ISIS fighters. It comes as Iraqi army forces continue their three-front advance on the city, the last ISIS stronghold in the country. Mosul is where Baghdadi declared a caliphate two years ago. Iraqi forces have already retaken dozens of villages and towns on the outskirts of the city, with the help of Kurdish Peshmerga forces, Shia Muslim militias and Sunni Arab tribesmen.

Some persons were reportedly wounded during the election into Ekiti State Executive Council of the Nigeria Union of Teachers in Ado Ekiti on Thursday. Two other persons were said to have been arrested by men of the Department of State Service during the violence which broke out when a group of teachers protested against alleged manipulation of delegates list. The victims, who were loyalists of a chairmanship candidate, Mr. Taiwo Adu, were reportedly beaten by men of the Nigerian Security and Civil Defence Corps and the DSS. Adu, who later addressed journalists, said those wounded had been taken to hospitals for treatment. He explained that violence broke out when the outgoing executive refused to address a petition raised by his support group – the Progressives – which queried the delegates list. He accused the outgoing chairman, Samuel Akosile, and the secretary, Olugbenga Ajibade, of doctoring the list to favour his rival, Mr. Olusegun Olugbenga. “Instead of 87 delegates for Ado ...

Some loyalists of the Ali Modu Sheriff-led faction of the Peoples Democratic Party in the South-West, have filed an application before the Court of Appeal in Abuja, asking for an order disbanding the new panel set up to hear the appeals relating to the dispute over the PDP’s ticket for the forthcoming governorship election in Ondo State. The eight loyalists led by Biyi Poroye, who is the Chairman of the Sherriff-led faction of the PDP in Ondo State, are  officers of the faction in the South-West states. They are also respondents in the various appeals filed by the Ahmed Makarfi-led faction of the party and its preferred Ondo State governorship candidate, Mr. Eyitayo Jegede, challenging the order of a Federal High Court in Abuja compelling the  Independent National Electoral Commission to drop Jegede and replace him with Jimoh Ibrahim of the Sheriff faction as the governorship candidate of the party in Ondo State. President of the Court of Appeal, Justice Zainab Bulkachuwa, h...

President Muhammadu Buhari on Thursday admitted that at a point after he was inaugurated as the President in May 2015, he felt like running away. He said he would have taken the decision because of the myriad of problems his administration inherited from past governments. Buhari said this while addressing 68 participants of Senior Executive Course 38 of the National Institute for Policy and Strategic Studies, Kuru and the institute’s management staff at the Presidential Villa, Abuja. The President said consecutive administrations since 1999 realised unprecedented resources because of the huge price of oil and the number of barrels being produced per day and yet the party in government during the period had nothing to show for it. He said, “For 16 years and eight consecutive governments of the other party, you know that there was unprecedented revenue realised. Oil production which can be verified was 2.1 million barrels per day. “Between 1999 and 2015, the average cost of each Nigeri...

A former Comptroller-General of the Nigeria Customs Service, Alhaji Abdullahi Dikko, has returned N1,040,000, 000 to the Federal Government. Dikko, who served as the head of customs between August, 2009 and August, 2015, became the subject of an EFCC investigation last year when the commission established that about N40bn was diverted from the coffers of the NCS under his watch. The funds were allegedly drawn from proceeds of the seven per cent cost of collection and one per cent comprehensive import supervision scheme. He was subsequently arrested by the EFCC in June this year but was released due to his poor health. However, a reliable source within the EFCC told our correspondent that the suspect had been returning money to the government. The source added, “So far, Dikko has returned over N1bn. He returned N1bn and then N4m. He is still expected to return more money.” The EFCC had, earlier in the year, seized a mansion belonging to Dikko located at 1 Audu Ogbeh Street, Jabi, Abuja...