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• President Buhari By TEMIDAYO AKINSUYI It is unclear whether President Muhammadu Buhari will attend the controversial National Executive Committee (NEC) of the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) scheduled for Tuesday. While opponents of the embattled National Chairman of the party, Adams Oshiomhole have declared support for the meeting, his loyalists have branded it as illegal. They claimed Victor Giadom, the party’s Acting National Secretary who convened the meeting lacked the powers to do so. When contacted on Saturday, Garba Shehu, Senior Special Assistant on Media and Publicity to the President said he has no information on whether the President will attend or not. “Honestly, I don’t know if the President will attend. I have no Information concerning that at the moment,” he said. (Independent)

Police in Ekiti State have arrested certain Okafor John for allegedly attacking two students of the Federal University, Oye Ekiti, and forcefully collect money from them. The Commissioner of Police in the state, Mr Asuquo Amba, who disclosed this while parading the suspects to the newsmen said John robbed his victims Olasehinde Taoheed Olawale and Peter Lucky at gun point. Amba said the suspect forced the victims to transfer a sum of seven thousand naira to his United Bank for Africa Account No 2141886420. “The case was immediately reported and the police went in search of the suspects. On 24th of February, 2020, Okafor John was arrested and he confessed to the alleged crime and mentioned one Kingsley as his accomplice”. Also paraded is a 24- year old Sunday Ogaji, who was arrested for allegedly having sex with a she- goat. The suspect who has since been arraigned in court committed the offence on March 4, 2020. The CP in a statement made available to journalists on Sat...

•Governor Makinde The Oyo State Chapter of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) has described as needless and unwarranted the attacks and campaign of calumny against the State Governor, Engineer Seyi Makinde, over a statement he made at a recent business/investment forum in the United States of America (USA). Statements by the state chapter of the All Progressives Congress (APC) and some attention-seeking politicians had attempted to misrepresent the statement by the governor that the state has a workforce of 115,000 and pays a monthly wage of N11 billion. The PDP in a statement signed by its Publicity Secretary, Engineer Akeem Olatunji, noted that those behind the attacks are uninformed, mischievous and devious. It stated that the opposition APC and some political minions including one Mr. Hakeem Alao, who is claiming to be the governorship candidate of the Alliance for Democracy (AD) in the last election, are confused and needed to be educated about running a state. The st...

The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) has alleged illegal membership registration in some of its state chapters without the knowledge and approval of its leadership. The party in a statement by National Organising Secretary, Col Austin Akobundu (rtd), said it did not authorise any individual or organisation to conduct any registration of its members under any guise. According to the statement, such registration is illegal and unconstitutional, and is against the provision of the PDP Constitution, which prescribes that ward registers shall close 30 days before congresses. PDP is at the moment conducting nationwide congresses to elect party leaders at ward, local government, state and zonal levels. The statement therefore directed its state chairmen “to take firm control and maintain strict supervision of our party’s membership, issuance of valid membership cards, and ward registers. “All membership cards whose origin cannot be established/verified are therefore suspected to...

• Lionel Messi By CHRIS BURTON The iconic Argentine is looking to make the most of time with his family during a testing period for the global population as a whole. Lionel Messi admits “health must always come first” as the Barcelona superstar joins those taking in a period of self-isolation during “complicated” and worrying times in the coronavirus outbreak. A global pandemic is forcing a concerned global population to take decisive action in a bid to contain the spread of Covid-19. Professional sportsmen and women form part of that process, with events having been cancelled and suspended around the world. Worth every penny: Ighalo & Fernandes arrivals have Man Utd motoring towards Champions League La Liga has joined the likes of Serie A, Bundesliga, Ligue 1 and Premier League in bringing competitive football to an immediate halt. Barcelona have taken matters a step further by postponing all training activity for two weeks. A statement released by the Catal...

By FRANK IKPEFAN, Abuja The 2020 Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination (UTME) commenced nationwide on Saturday with mixed reactions from candidates and their parents. Over 1.9m candidates are sitting for the examination in over 600 computer based test centres (CBT) across the country. Our reporter, who monitored the examination in some centres, observed that some candidates who wrote the examination had different experiences. For example, at the Ade-Ola International School CBT Centre, Kubwa, our reporter observed that parents protested at the school gates because of the failure of the virtual private network (VPN). Some candidates scheduled to write the examination at 7am could not write until after 1pm because of network challenge. The parents, who were agitated over the challenge, struggled at the gate to seek explanation from the school authorities. When our reporter visited the centre at about noon, some JAMB officials had arrived and were reportedly worki...

The Federal Competition and Consumer Protection Commission (FCCPC), the apex consumer protection agency in Nigeria, on Saturday, sealed an elitist Chinese restaurant and mall in Lagos for alleged racism. FCCPC announced the sealing of Haufei Restaurant & Mall via a tweet from @fccpcnigeria. “Today, FCCPC closed Haufei Restaurant & Mall  33 Aboyade Cole , VI based on credible intel & surveillance that the biz declines service to Nigerians. “Staff of the biz admitted this is the policy & our operatives experienced same. Both now closed for further regulatory action,” the tweet said.

•Niger Delta Affairs Minister of State, Senator Alasoadura By NDUBUISI FRANCIS, Abuja The Minister of State, Ministry of Niger Delta Affairs, Senator Tayo Alasoadura, has directed staff of the ministry to make screening for Coronavirus (COVID-19) compulsory at every function, insisting that the dreaded pandemic is no respecter of persons. The minister’s directive was handed down in Abuja at a roundtable discussion on the Strategic Implementation Work Plan (SWIP) for the Niger Delta with relevant ministries, departments and agencies (MDAs), development partners and key stakeholders. The event was attended by members of the diplomatic community, representatives of international oil companies (IOCs), development partners, inter-ministerial agencies and other stakeholders. In his opening remarks, Alasoadura, who represented the Minister of Niger Delta Affairs, Senator Godswill Akpabio, stated that Coronavirus had assumed a worrisome dimension globally, and therefore needed eve...

By HOPE ABAH EMMANUEL, Makurdi Bodies of three men suspected to be robbers were found early Friday burnt near the perimeter fence of the Federal University of Agriculture, in Makurdi (FUAM), but police say there were lynched. A number of sources indicate the three burnt bodies found at the university gate met their waterloo during a robbery operation in the rural community close to the institution while others disputed that they were cultists on reprisal. A student who declined to have his name in print, said there were suspicions that the deceased were students who went on a revenge mission following the Wednesday killing of a 200-level undergraduate at the Benue State University (BSU) campus in Makurdi. But, a FUAM Public Relations Officer, Joseph Fanafa, who admitted that three bodies were found burnt beyond recognition at the new perimeter fence of the institution dismissed claims linking the deceased as either students of the university or cultists. “No identity card...

A prominent Nigerian has died of Coronavirus in Canada. News of the death of Dr. Olumide Okunuga, was broken yesterday morning, Saturday, March 14, 2020. The US-based blog Irohinoodua reported last night that Dr. Okunuga died of Coronavirus. He was aged 63 and is the first Nigerian known to have died of the dreaded disease. Okunuga was the President of Egbe Omo Yoruba, Emila Romagna and Vice-President of Yoruba National Community in Italy. He was a pathologist and native of Ikenne Remo, in Ogun State. Dr Okunuga was also a two-time Councillor for Modena in Italy where he had lived for 35 years. He was diagnosed to have contacted Coronavirus in Canada, a country which has recently been hit by the deadly virus, Irohinoodua said. It quoted sources as saying that the remains of Dr. Okunuga were asked to be recognised from a distance by his daughter, Dr. Bolanle Okunuga, whose mother is a Caucasian of Italian origin. Irohinoodua further quoted Canadian health officials as sa...