Owo Church Killings A Sacrilegious Attack From Enemies Of Nigeria – Omi-Agege Says

Owo Church Killings A Sacrilegious Attack From Enemies Of Nigeria – Omi-Agege Says

Last Sunday’s dastardly attack on worshippers at St Francis Catholic Church, Owo may be a calculated attempt to provoke massive crisis in Nigeria and all security agencies must work together in investigating it, Deputy President of the Senate, Senator Ovie Omo-Agege has said.

Reacting to the sad incident through a statement issued by his Special Adviser on Media and Publicity, Yomi Odunuga, the Deputy Senate President noted Ondo State Governor, Chief Rotimi Akeredolu’s suspicions that the assailants could be foreign trained anarchists, adding that the investigators must spread their tentacles beyond Nigeria in order to bring them and their facilitators to justice.

“I commiserate deeply with His Excellency, Governor Akeredolu, the Catholic Church, families of innocent victims and the entire citizens of Ondo State over this unprecedented gruesome attack aimed towards shattering the peace of Nigeria.

“There is much more to the attack than what many can immediately see or understand; therefore, I join other well-meaning people in pleading that no one should contemplate reprisal attacks that will only affect innocent persons.

“If the aim of these terrorists and anarchists is to set us against one another across Nigeria, we must collectively remain firm in rejecting their nudging towards violence against one another.

“My deepest condolences to the traditional ruler, Chiefs, the people of Owo and families of all those affected during the criminal incident. May God and the hard work of our security agencies unmask the perpetrators of evil and all those associated with them,” Senator Omo-Agege stated.

Tampering Of Delegates List Tears Anambra APC Apart

Tampering Of Delegates List Tears Anambra APC Apart

…. Party stalwarts stranded, following frequent change of names

…Blame Sen. Uba and state chairman, Basil Ejidike, for the tampering

The camp of Anambra State delegates to the ongoing presidential primaries of the ruling All Progressives Congress, (APC), is now in turmoil following the random change of delegates ‘elected’ to represent the state. The state has a total of 63 national delegates, three each from the state’s 21 local government areas.

Over the last three weeks, our sources say, there has been at least three different lists emanating from the Anambra State chapter of the APC.

Although the authentic list of delegates has since been filed with the APC headquarters and the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, leaders of the party in the state remain determined to effect changes to the already established list. Besides the removal of certain individuals due to political exigencies, the latest attempt to foist a change is been championed by members of the state working committee, SWC, who insist on being accommodated.

Tempers, however, flared last night as the chapter met at the Maitama office of the acclaimed leader of the party in the state, Senator Andy Uba. Sources close to the meeting disclosed that many party stalwarts were shocked during accreditation, when they discovered that their names had disappeared from the list. In their place were SWC members from each LGA.

Some of those whose names were tampered with include Chief Johnbosco Onunkwo, a frontline gubernatorial aspirant and financier of the party, BenChuks Nwosu, a former speaker of the Anambra State House of Assembly, Chief Chibuzor Obiakor, the party’s state agent at the last governorship election in the state, Hon. Chizoba Obidigwe, a former member of the House of Representatives and leader of the party in Ayamelum LGA, and Chief Dubem Obaze, a leading stalwart.

In fact, matters nearly degenerated into fisticuffs after representatives of APC National Leader, Asiwaju Bola Tinubu visited the Anambra delegation and announced a welcome package of N250,000 for each delegate.

Although the state chairman had earlier announced a 15 percent deduction from every monetary gift to the delegates, he ended up deducting N50,000, instead of N37,500 from the money donated from the Tinubu team.

For now, delegates wait for the accreditation process to commence, even as they continue to grumble over the contentious Anambra delegates list.

Jose Peseiro loses first two games in charge of Super Eagles

Super Eagles of Nigeria lost 1-0 in their 2nd friendly game against Ecuador at the 25,000 capacity Red Bull Arena stadium in Harrison, New Jersey. 

This is the second friendly game the Portuguese coach Jose Peseiro is handling after a 2-1 loss to Mexico on Saturday.

Speaking after the game, Peseiro stated that his side deserved at least a penalty in the course of the game, but admitted his side struggled during the encounter. 

He also stated “Of course, I don’t want to speak about the referee but at least one penalty. No VAR but at the start of the show, there was a clear penalty. The goalkeeper touched the foot of our striker. “I don’t know but I was told we had another penalty also but the referee didn’t give it to us. But it is okay, anybody can commit mistakes. Even the players can make mistakes also”

“Today in the first half we didn’t do well but in the last 25 minutes. Only in the first 50 minutes, we didn’t play like we should but they commanded the match after 50 minutes. 

The second half much better but it is not easy to put pressure on opponents for 90 minutes. Today, we played better than against Mexico. I hope we will take this today to our AFCON match against Sierra Leone.” 

Next game up for the Super Eagles is a 2023 African Cup Of Nations qualifying match against Sierra Leone at the MKO Abiola National Stadium Abuja,on Thursday 9th June.

Abuja Agog As Ejike Ugboaja FC Scouting Program Kicks Off On Sunday

Abuja Agog As Ejike Ugboaja FC Scouting Program Kicks Off On Sunday

The Federal Capital City, Abuja will from Sunday, June 5, 2022 host about 28 teams from across the country at the Goal Project, Parkage B, MKO Abiola National Stadium as Ejike Ugboaja FC is organising a-5-day scouting program.

The program will feature about five hundred players across the country. However, scouts from ten clubs across the Europe including Arsenal, Chelsea among others have already confirmed their participations.

Speaking ahead of the scouting program, the chairman of the organising club, Ejike Ugboaja FC, Christopher Ejike Ugboaja said, the idea behind the five-day scouting program was to give Nigeriian young players the opportunity to be seen by those super clubs in Europe.

He said, talents are abound in Nigeria, but how do they get to be recognise has been the problem, therefore, in his quest to give back to the society he has chosen to organise the scouting program so that they can come together showcase their talents before the scouts and the lucky ones could be spotted and giving a contract immediately.

“As I keep saying, they are good players in Nigeria but, the issue has been who will help expose them to these foreign scouts? And that is the reason I came in, because having played basketball to it’s pinnacle and coupled with the facts that I have helped over two thousands Nigerian basketball players and America footballers schools in the United State of America and clubs too, I thought it wise to replicate same in football “

“We have concluded all arraignment concerning the program. The scouts will be in the country on Saturday and leave for their respective clubs on June 9, after the closing ceremony

“Our prayers are that they should be able to identify and sign as many players as possible, so that at the end we would have empower the young players because that is the reason behind the program.,” Ugboaja said.

Depp Wins Defamation Case Against Heard by Francisca Ogar

Depp Wins Defamation Case Against Heard by Francisca Ogar


When jurors delivered their verdict, Johnny Depp was awarded $10m (£8m) in compensatory damages and $5m (£4m) in punitive damages.

But punitive damages in the state of Virginia are capped at $350,000.

US media reports that Judge Penny Azcarate has now reduced the size of Depp’s punitive damages award to meet that legal limit.

Depp will therefore receive about $10.4m in total,

Amber Heard – who won one of her three counter-claims against Depp – was awarded $2m in compensatory damages but received no money for punitive damages.

Amber Heard supporter Sydni Porter, carrying a flag with messages from other fans, says she is “disappointed and confused” by the verdict:

“It doesn’t make sense. Johnny Depp had already been on the downfall with his career, so I don’t think she had anything to do with it.

It’s disappointing for women going forward and how they have to bring evidence to court. Especially against someone as high profile as Johnny Depp.

The #MeToo movement seems to have separated themselves from [the trial] so I don’t think it’ll be affected.

It was very hard to watch even if I believed Johnny was the one who was abused. It shouldn’t be a spectacle for us all to watch.”
Johnny Depp fan Diana Merlo, 24, followed live coverage of the case on her phone and via TikTok:

“I’m happy for Johnny. He won his case, he was always being truthful and Amber Heard wasn’t.

I was nervous. When it comes to domestic abuse, we always hear about women not men.

Women can be just as abusive. Feminism is standing with people, not just women.”
Source: BBC

Experts Converge In Abuja To Develop Framework For Transitional Justice In North East

Experts Converge In Abuja To Develop Framework For Transitional Justice In North East

Abuja – A group of Senior Legal Academics, Solicitor Generals/Permanent Secretaries, and Personalities from related fields have converged in Abuja to develop a suitable framework for a successful Transitional Justice Programme in North East Nigeria.

The Strategic Expert Meeting for the development of Transitional Justice Framework is one of the activities under a project titled “Promoting Transitional Justice and Reconciliation in Adamawa, Borno and Yobe State”. The project is being implemented by the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) in Partnership with United Nation Development Programme (UNDP) and supported by the European Union (EU).

The Executive Secretary of the Commission Chief Tony Ojukwu SAN while delivering a welcome address at the meeting said the Commission is pleased to host the highest level of experts as far as justice machinery in the three project states of Adamawa Borno and Yobe is concerned.
This is for the purpose of developing a suitable framework for the Transitional Justice, a project that we have introduced to some communities in the three states.

The Human Rights Boss was represented at the event by his Senior Special Adviser, Mr. Hilary Ogbonna who also doubles as the Project Coordinator.

He stated that “it is highly imperative to design a framework that will best suit the communities ravaged by insurgency” he emphasized that ” the framework should be in conformity with the values, beliefs, culture and tradition of the people, this will make it easy for the community to adapt” he added.

He also stressed that “the framework must be predicated on the principles of natural justice, fair hearing, victim justice, survivor justice, equality etc” .

In his remark, the representative of the UNDP Mr. Elia Von Rota applauded the effort of the Commission in bringing such caliber of intellectuals together to develop the framework, saying he will be pleased to be an observer at the meeting.

In his good will message, the Permanent Secretary and Solicitor General of Adamawa State Samuel Yaumande Esq, said the initiative is the first of its kind in the North East. He pointed out the need to have in place an effective justice system that would reconcile and reintegrate members of communities who have experienced gross human rights violations as a result of the insurgency. He advised that “in designing the framework, it is necessary to take into consideration the need of the victims to enable them pick up their pieces of lives and move forward”.

Similarly, his Yobe State Counterpart Hajiya Kadija Alkali said the programme could not have come at a better time than now, due to the recent massive surrender of many insurgents. She said “there is need for everyone to embrace the transitional justice and reconciliation approach, because it gives hope for peace to reign among the members of the community”. She called on the experts to make concerted efforts towards having a perfect framework that will serve as a guideline to achieve lasting peace in the region.

The representative of the Permanent Secretary and Solicitor General of Borno State who is also the Director of Civil Litigation B M Bukar Esq said “the justice system we adopt from the English people is alien to our culture, as such it is not suitable for us”. He described it as “unnecessarily long and boring to our people, it is not easy to enforce foreign culture on our people”. According to him, “this method of Transitional Justice and Reconciliation is the best thing that can happen to us in this region as far as making peace and reconciliation is concerned and we must all ensure that it works”.

At the event were Academics from different Universities as well as Civil Society Organizations and State Coordinators of the Commission.

Ralf Rangnick Departs Manchester United for Austria Job

Manchester United interim Manager Ralf Rangnick has officially left United with immediate effect, despite having a two year role as a consultant on the way.

Rangnick who has completed his tenure as the interim manager was set to become a consultant at United and work alongside new manager Erik Ten Hag.

Rangnick has now decided to step away from United with immediate effect to focus on his new commitments as manager of the Austrian national team.

In a statement released by United, they said “We would like to thank Ralf Rangnick for his efforts as interim manager over the past six months.

“By mutual agreement, Ralf will now focus solely on his new role as manager of the Austria national team and will not therefore be taking up a consultancy role at Old Trafford.

“We would like to wish Ralf the best of luck in this next chapter of his career.”

Ejike Ugboaja FC Embarks On Community Service In Abuja

Ejike Ugboaja FC Embarks On Community Service In Abuja

As part of their efforts to giving back to the society, the players and management of Ejike Ugboaja Football Club of Abuja on Friday embarked on a community service of cleaning Wuse market. They also donate money/provisions to the less privileges.

The exercise which took place in Wuse market attracted lots of attention as it’s served as the first in it’s kind.

Speaking on why the club embarked on such community service of cleaning the Wuse market and it’s surroundings, the chairman of the club, Ejike Ugboaja said, the exercise became possible in order to prepare the minds of the players on what to expect if they live the shore of this country to ply their trade abroad as professional footballers.

He also said, he introduced it because he felt it was right to start doing so having spent over 12 years playing basketball abroad and engaging in such activities on a regular basis

“I think what I am trying to achieve is that whenever the players are across the globe, they will always remember to return back to serve their community back here in Nigeria.
“The community service we embarked upon today (Friday) was good because most of us sports men and women who have played abroad this is exactly what we do there and so I felt Ejike Ugboaja FC should start doing it here.
“It’s not only representing the country in international competitions that matters but what we did was to also clean the capital city of Nigeria because that gives the upcoming players sense of patriotism and belonging,” he said.

2022 Children’s Day: Nigerian children face increased vulnerabilities, deserve more care, support – NHRC

2022 Children’s Day: Nigerian children face increased vulnerabilities, deserve more care, support – NHRC

Abuja – The National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) has urged the government at all levels to prioritize the protection and care of children, especially those facing challenges like child labour and trafficking, no shelter, hunger, out-of-school situation, poor antenatal and postnatal care, orphans and vulnerable children syndrome, etc, to avoid further violation of the rights of this vulnerable group.

The Executive Secretary of the Commission, Chief Tony Ojukwu SAN, who stated this as the Commission joins the rest of Nigerians to mark the 2022 Children’s Day cerebration, noted that the country has a lot to do in terms of protecting the rights of the children by equipping them with the necessary knowledge and skills that will enable them to realize and maximize their opportunities in life.

“We cannot allow our children to wander the street, face the challenge of kidnapping, malnutrition, trafficking, drug use and addiction, recruitment into terrorism, violent crimes, sexual and other forms of assault and forced/child marriages, if we really want the best for them”, Ojukwu said.

According to the Chief Human Rights Officer, our children have great potentials and can contribute to national actions for the common good of humanity and our country, and this will only happen when they are given the necessary care and support.
Incidentally, the theme of 2022 Children’s Day celebration, “Strengthening Supportive Systems for the Protection of the Nigerian Child; A Wake Up Call”, challenges the relevant authorities to put in place the necessary mechanisms that will enhance the protection of children in Nigeria.

“The Commission acknowledges the historic adoption by Member States of the United Nations of the Convention on the Rights of the Child ( CRC) which makes it an obligation for member states to take all appropriate legislative, administrative and other measures to implement the core principles of non-discrimination, devotion to the best interests of the child, the right to life, survival and development”, Ojukwu stated.

The Commission therefore commends the federal government for the passage of the Child Right Act 2003 and its adoption across the country except in few States that are yet to adopt this legislation.

“The Act which states that the best interest of the child shall remain paramount in all consideration of issues affecting children. It also incorporates all the rights and responsibilities of children and consolidates all other laws relating to children and specifies the duties and obligations of parents and authorities”, the Senior Advocate of Nigeria added.

As a Commission, the Executive Secretary stated that a lot of interventions have been made in support of the Child’s Rights across the 36 states of the federation and the Federal Capital Territory, aside from successfully handling complaints on violations of the rights of the child.

To this end, the Commission urges governments and all stakeholders to further commit themselves to addressing critical issues such as poverty, quality education, access to health care, sexual and gender based violence, child labor and trafficking and all harmful practices that affect our children.

The Commission further wishes to use the opportunity to call for the adoption of the child rights law in the outstanding states as well as the adoption of a policy for the protection of civilians including children especially in periods of conflict, insurgency, terrorism and large scale atrocities and criminalities like NIgeria is presently undergoing. It is also inevitable for all MDA’s to mainstream human rights and the interest of children into all migration issues as our commitment to achieving the objectives of the Global Compact on Migration, the Learned Senior Advocate further stated.

2023: Engineer Sule wins governorship primary election

2023: Engineer Sule wins governorship primary election

Abuja – Nasarawa State Governor, Engineer Abdullahi Sule, has emerged winner of the 2023 governorship primary election of the All Progressives Congress (APC).

Engineer Sule scored 698 votes to beat his rival, Dr Fatima Abdullahi, who got 3 votes.

In a victory speech shortly after he was declared winner at the Lafia City Hall, Thursday, the Governor thanked God for the peaceful nature of the exercise.

He expressed satisfaction that Nasarawa State has once again demonstrated the ability to carry out such exercise peacefully, hopping that the forthcoming general election will also be conducted peacefully throughout the state.

Engineer Sule thanked the delegates for not only taking part in the exercise but for their patience.

He particularly thanked his rival, Dr. Fatima Abdullahi, for her performance during the primary election, especially against the rumour that she was stepping down from the contest.

Engineer Sule commended her for making a move that will serve as encouragement especially for women in the North, to seek to occupy elective positions.

“My happiness is that you have gone through the exercise and have gained the experience. And now I have no doubt in my mind that should you come out in 2027, the performance will be different,” he said.

The Governor equally thanked the chairman of the election committee, Ambassador Ahmed Isa Ibeto and members of his team, for the smooth conduct of the governorship primary election.

A visibly excited Engineer Sule, thanked the people of Nasarawa State, promising to continue with the laudable development initiatives of his administration.

“My number satisfaction is that Nasarawa State has again proved that we can carry out any exercise in peace. And I am hoping that the general election will also be conducted peacefully,” he stated.

Earlier, Dr Fatima Abdullahi, ex-wife of the National Chairman of the APC, Senator Abdullahi Adamu, congratulated Engineer Sule on his resounding victory at the polls.

Dr. Abdullahi acknowledged that, through the exercise, the people of the state, have decided that the incumbent should continue with the good work that he started.

She explained that she joined the race as a face of hope for the youth and women, especially the Northern Nigerian woman whose participation in politics has been poor and whose involvement in governance has been low, despite being the highest voters especially in Nasarawa State.

Dr Abdullahi declared her support together with that of her teeming supporters, towards the victory of the Governor during the general election.

Announcing the result shortly after the votes were counted, Chairman of the 2023 APC Governorship Primary Election Committee in the state, Ambassador Ahmed Isa Ibeto, declared Engineer Sule winner having polled 698 votes.

With this development, Engineer Sule has cleared the path for a second term in office, ahead of the coming general election, where he will recontest against Hon David Ombugadu of the opposition Peoples Democratic Party (PDP).