Former Manchester United striker, Cristiano Ronaldo, has been slapped with a fine of £50,000 and given a two-match ban by the football association in England.
Following an incident that occurred in April when Ronaldo smashed a fan’s phone at Goodison Park after Man United lost to Everton last season, the FA have now concluded their investigation and handed Ronaldo his punishment.
This comes just a day after it was announced that the five-time Ballon d’Or winner had his contract with United terminated by mutual agreement following his explosive interview with Piers Morgan about the management of the club and the manager, Erik ten Hag.
Ronaldo said the club had remained stagnant since Sir Alex Ferguson left back in 2013, adding that there was no growth whatsoever. He also said he had no respect for Ten Hag cause the manager had no respect for him.
Also the owners of Man United, the Glazers, announced on Tuesday evening that they were putting the club up for sale and would be listening to offers.
According to The Mirror UK, the ban means that Ronaldo would be suspended for two games if he joins another Premier League club, with Chelsea and Newcastle both linked with a move for the 37-year-old.
Ronaldo is presently in Qatar preparing for Portugal’s World Cup opening match against Ghana on Thursday
The President, Major General Muhammadu Buhari (retd.), on Wednesday morning unveiled the redesigned naira notes across the N200, N500 and N1,000 denominations.
Buhari unveiled the notes at the Council Chambers of the State House shortly before the kickoff of this week’s Federal Executive Council meeting.
Fielding questions from correspondents after the event, the Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria, Godwin Emefiele, insisted that the move is not targeted at anyone.
Rather, he said the redesigned notes would give the apex bank ample control over the amount of money in circulation.
“This move is to enable the Central Bank of Nigeria have control over the size of money in circulation
“There is no need to think that the programme is targeted at anyone. During my speech at the unveiling, I said that plans for this started early in the year. We considered the pros and cons carefully.
In the past, attempts to redesign and reissue currencies have been resisted. Only a President of Muhammadu Buhari’s character could have made it happen,” he said.
At the briefing, Emefiele added that the amount of money that can be withdrawn from the counter would be reduced drastically, adding that bulk withdrawal would require several procedures and security checks to track its use.
This he said would ensure a steady transition into a cashless economy.
The CBN governor also argued that Nigerians have ample time to return the old notes in circulation adding that the apex bank will not extend the January 31, 2023 deadline.
According to him, “As of 2018, we had 86,000 touchpoints nationwide where Nigerians could deposit and withdraw money. In October 2022, that number has risen to 1.4 million touchpoints.
“That is to say we have over 1.4 million bank branches, POS points and other ancillary outfits to enable Nigerians return the old notes.”
Emefiele said the apex bank will now redesign the currency after every five to eight years, as empowered by the constitution.
Yesterday, the presidential candidate of the Labour Party, Peter Obi and his running mate, Yusuf Baba-Ahmed Datti were live on NTA with Kadaria Ahmed for a town hall meeting which had a couple , audience and with that questions were thrown at them. When asked by Kadaria Ahmed his position regarding the agitation for the state of Biafra?
Peter Obi replied, telling Kadaria Ahmed he would call the person who asked the question a son and when it comes to the issue of agitation, it’s not yes or no, as people agitate everywhere, including his house. Peter Obi went on to say the first thing one does with agitators is to sit down and listen to the person who is agitating, because unless you sit down, one cannot say yes or no.
Using himself as an example, Obi said he’s a Nigerian contesting for the election who believes in the unity of Nigeria and would bring all agitators back to Nigeria and make it work for them as the reason why they are agitating is injustice.
AWKA – The Human Rights, Liberty Access and Peace Defenders’ Foundation (HURIDE) and Campaign for Democracy (CD), South East Zone, have asked Governor Chukwuma Soludo to immediately disband the Anambra State Road Traffic Management Agency (ARTMA) as it is currently constituted.
The groups also called on the Governor to constitute an ARTMA made of people with character who are professionally trained to do the work with a human face.
They also said that the present Commander of the agency, Nnamdi Emmanuel a.k.a (Ochudo), should be flushed out and arrested for corruption for being behind the criminal extortion of road users in the State.
The rights groups in a statement made available to newsmen weekend said the disbandment of the agency3 has become imperative to stem the tide of corruption, abuse, high-handedness and criminalities exhibited by the men of the agency against road users in Anambra State.
In the statement signed by Dede Uzor A Uzor, Executive Director, HURIDE and Chairman, CD in the South East zone, the groups said the agency abandoned its statutory duty of managing traffics on the Anambra roads and engaged in abuse and exhortation of road users.
The groups said the state cannot set up an organisation like ARTMA purposely for profit motives, lamenting that their unconventional operation of just impounding vehicles and extorting money negates their statutory duty.
They said ARTMA remapped some major streets and roads in the State and made them one-way without adequate publicity to sensitise motorists and other road users.
They catch in on the ignorance of the motorists that some places have been turned into one way to impound people’s vehicles and exhort huge sums of money ranging from N30, 000 to N100, 000 depending on the vehicle, especially Niger-under-Bridge,” said the groups.
Continuing, the group said “: If you introduce a new law and you publicise it so that the public will know about it. Don’t use it as a bait to impound vehicles and impose outrageous fines”.
Unfortunately, they said, sometimes these people lure drivers where to park, then they would impound the vehicle and extort and collect huge sums of money from their victims.
The group also frowned at the carrying of POS machines around by ARTMA operatives which they give their victims to transfer money from their bank accounts with white buses as a notorious most dangerous group
Most of the traffic offenders said the rights groups, were commercial vehicles but the operatives looked the other way and most times and go for private cars where they can exhort huge money.
Onitsha Owerri road is the most trafficked road but they look the other way because they were commercial vehicles.
They said one pathetic case was a private school bus, Promise International School in Onitsha which was impounded and detained for one week but was released after the payment of N22, 500 and a medical doctor Gloria Hospital Awada and Fegge Onitsha had the same experience of being extorted with the same amount after he told them of being in emergency but no one listened.
Human Rights Writers Association ofNigeria, HURIWA, has warned that theGovernorof Anambra State, Chukwuma Soludo’s ‘taxation regime’ is making life unbearable and pushing more residents oftheState into poverty.
According to HURIWA, Soludo’s ‘utopian’ mindset and policies cannot work for Anambra people
HURIWA, in a statement by its National Coordinator, Comrade Emmanuel Onwubiko, said rather than yield profits, Governor Soludo’s taxation policy is pushing more residents ofthe South-East State into poverty.
The group told Soludo to jettison extreme Central Bank-like policies which it said are not workable for the people of Anambra State.
HURIWA noted that since his inauguration on March 17, 2022, the former CBN governor had introduced various kinds of taxes on the poor in Anambra.
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Commenting, HURIWA’s Onwubiko said, “Theapproach ofGovernor Soludo is most unfortunate because he has largely targeted the poor with his regime of unbearable taxation instead ofthe rich who have perfected the art and act of evading taxes in hundreds of millions of naira.
“Thegovernor’s heavy taxation on the poor is akin to muzzling the ox when it is treading out the grain which is unrealistic and unnatural.
“Now some tricycle operators have reportedly become ‘part-time’ armed robbers robbing some unsuspecting members ofthe public, maybe in their warped attempt to remain in business by meeting up the unattainable heavy taxes they pay to Governor Soludo’s obnoxious tax collectors.
With an estimated population of about 5,084,195 and a Gross Domestic Product of about N5.5tn, as well as a projected Internally Generated Revenue of N48bn in 2023, Anambra is not Lagos with a projected IGR ofN1.1tn in 2023 as erroneously compared by GovernorSoludo during his recent budget presentation.
GovernorSoludo’s desperation surfaced recently when he asked sons and daughters ofthe soil working in other States but with residences in Anambra to remit their taxes to theStategovernment.
“Governor Soludo should stop comparing Anambra to Lagos to justify his desperation to tax the poor to death; he should rather focus on the extremely rich and average individuals who are not in the tax net.”
Therights group wondered why Soludo, who boasted to have global connections during the campaign, is now pushing mostly the poor Anambra people into commercial extinction with all kinds of taxes.
“This is because his anti-poor tax regime has impoverished more residents oftheState,” the group added.
The human rights advocacy group, therefore, called on theGovernor Soludo administration to effect a swift change of governance and adopt a more people-friendly approach that will lift up the poor.
Nobel Laureate, Wole Soyinka has said that the removal of history from the curriculum of Nigerian schools by the government is a criminal act.
Speaking at the 24th edition of the Lagos Book and Arts Festival organized, Soyinka stated that memories of Biafra can’t be erased by the removal of history from schools’ curriculum as the agitation can never be defeated.
He said;
“Collective memory is the key because it is that memory which is related to the mechanisms of relating reality to whatever narrative is given to us. It is far more important and it is more dangerous because you can get trapped in it because it is collected as a community activity and some of that I think is happening to us here in Nigeria.
“I’m referring of course to Biafra.
“The collective memory there is very strong, even before the war, I warned that this collective memory might remain to plague efforts at nation being and that therefore, everything should be done to avoid that war.
“When I use expressions like, Biafra can never be defeated can never be wiped away, people thought I was talking about just the battlefield.
“I was talking about, a notion, a passion which enters the collective memory in active life not just as a past narrative. this is what I was warning against. And we’re seeing it today.
“Governments sometimes think that by undertaking the criminal act of removing history from schools, something which I never believed could ever happen to us. The government actually stopped teaching of history in schools.
“So naive, so stupid as not to recognise that there is something called memory, collective memory, active memory in the present.
“If the purpose was to obliterate the war or memories of the war, what about events that led up to the war? What about the position, the narrative of existence in relation to the outer world? How do you obliterate for heaven’s sake?
“Yet people sat down and went about their business when they removed history from the curriculum.
“That’s what I mean by saying that we must always adjudicate the present by history, by the collective memory.
“At the same time, however, we must take care not to become prisoners of that collective memory.
The scandals beclouding the presidential candidate of the All-Progressives Congress (APC), Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu are not only disqualifying, but they have also become an endless web. Currently trending and most damaging is a valid court document which clearly shows he had to forfeit a whopping $460,000 allegedly from illegal drug proceeds to the Government of the United States of America. Combine that with an archived report that has surfaced which suggests that Tinubu indeed suffers from an apparent terminal illness, as well as allegations of money laundering, massive corruption, certificate forgery, perjury, to falsification of his age.
We are talking about a man who is possibly the oldest-looking 70-year-old multibillionaire in the human history. The person in question is also well known to have no legitimate source of income but owns private jets and launders money with bullion vans. Yet, the same character is desperate to become president of a country but refuses to answer simple questions about his past or present.
In a normal clime, any individual with a background as shady as Mr. Bola Ahmed Tinubu would not be grandstanding as a presidential candidate for a major political party, let alone any chance of winning. But Nigeria is not normal. Anything can go—without qualms. Therefore, having grabbed the party’s ticket by every foul means, it must not surprise anyone if Tinubu emerges president by hook or crook.
If such bad omen is to befall Nigeria, but may God forbid; the following three ominous developments are obvious:
CORRUPTION: Mentioning corruption in the same breadth with Tinubu can never be a breaking news. As the then Chairman of Economic and Financial Crime Commission (EFCC), Nuhu Ribadu clearly stated, the Asiwaju is “a looter of international dimensions.” This notoriety is more troubling when considered that despite Nigeria’s sleazy reputation, none of its leaders, whether military or civilian, has ever assumed the governance of the country with the type of shady background well known of Bola Ahmed Tinubu. None!! Yet, most of them, if not all, ended up becoming more corrupt than they were before gaining power. Imagine then what becomes of Nigeria if the current APC presidential candidate ever has his way.
DRUG SCANDAL: Any scholar of politics who has observed the American modus operandi with respect to high-profile drug cases will profess that Tinubu’s alleged drug peddling will be unearthed should he wangle his way to Aso Rock. The U.S. is known to be very unforgiving of individuals who use drug proceeds to gain power in foreign nations.
A perfect example is Manuel Antonio Noriega, the former President of Panama. Like Tinubu, Noriega had amassed a huge personal fortune through shady sources. Though the U. S. authorities ignored the Panama president for a while, allowing him to enter the country as he pleased, they chose the seasonable time to exhume his drug case. Consequently, they convicted Noriega, removed him from power, jailed him for life, and shamed his country.
A similar sad fate awaits Nigeria if Tinubu is to emerge president. Now, consider that the former Lagos State Governor does not hide his stupendous wealth. Follow that with the fact that the man continues to deny any connection to massive corruption in Nigeria. There and then, and where prompted, the U.S. authorities are bound to link his sudden billions to the drug case that once led to his forfeiture of $460,000.00.
Statute of Limitation and Double Jeopardy Clause of the Fifth Amendment to the US Constitution notwithstanding, the very nature of this case still presents prosecutors clear legal avenues to explore the Separate Sovereigns Doctrine and seek Tinubu’s indictment.
TERMINAL ILLNESS: A Tinubu presidency will subject Nigeria to another round of absentee leader whose degree of health crisis far belittles those of Umar Yar’Adua, and Muhammadu Buhari put together. For those who are not familiar with the extent of Tinubu’s sickness, it makes sense to consider an independent opinion as widely reported at a time he was not seeking office.
One of such innocent viewpoints is a chronicle by the Daily Trust Newspaper on October 29, 2014, which goes as follows: [“All Progressives Congress (APC) leader, Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu, was flown to London on Friday for medical treatment…An aide said he was flown out in his private jet as his ailing health deteriorated. Our correspondent gathered that Tinubu is suffering from an ailment which affects his posture and balance as well his movement, speech and writing. He is said to have been managing the ailment for almost a decade. “He has been manifesting symptoms of Parkinson disease which include tremor, shaky limbs, hands and fingers, slow movement, impaired posture and balance and loss of automatic movements,” said a close aide.]
Close observers of the Asiwaju will agree intoto with the Daily Trust report. Bola Ahmed Tinubu not only appears far older than he claims, but he also appears physically and mentally challenged. These obvious terminal health challenges along with his shady background explain why he cannot face the Nigerian press or attend presidential debates. Rather, he is attempting to bamboozle the electorate by adopting his familiar mélange of propaganda and profligacy, hiring highly priced spin doctors whose sole raison d’etre is to spew fatal lies. He even goes as far as threatening pressmen with lawsuits, thereby portraying himself as a victim. But such shenanigans will not work.
The latest truth emanating from all these tales is that the Nigerian masses have become wiser. They are determined to firmly resist the political chicanery this time around. And the world is watching. It is incumbent upon the APC, therefore, to see an urgent need to compel Tinubu to withdraw from the race and quickly replace him in line with the electoral laws. Other patriotic Nigerians should join to demand his withdrawal. The change will stave off the inevitable worldwide outrage, as well as the thick cloud of shame that will engulf Nigeria if the country’s president is generally seen as a corrupt kingpin cum drug lord.
Critics will be quick to fire back here. They will resort to the mundane notion that the APC has presented a joint ticket of Tinubu, and his running mate, Kashim Shettima. In other words, Shettima would step in if Tinubu becomes incapacitated due to his failing health or a likely jail term by the U.S. authorities over his alleged drug trafficking. But such a shameless plot is a gross disservice to the country. The Nigerian electorate deserves the right to critically examine whoever could become their president before the elections.
The presidential candidate of the African Action Congress, Omoyele Sowore, while speaking on the issues between the Federal Government and the Academic Staff Union of Universities, said the ‘no work, no pay’ policy reportedly enforced on the lecturers ought to be applicable to the President, Major General Muhammadu Buhari (retd.).
Sowore, who spoke at the presidential town hall organised by Daria Media and Cabal Entertainment on Friday evening, insisted that if the FG must enforce the ‘no work, no pay’ policy, the enforcement must start from Buhari because he barely worked.
While fielding a question on the government’s insistence on enforcing the policy on ASUU, who embarked on strike for eight months, and how he could handle it differently, Sowore maintained that Nigerian workers must be paid when their industrial action was based on a just course.
Sowore said, “When the strike is just, you will have to pay the strikers. They didn’t want to do this, it was the government that forced them into it.
“If you want to start the enforcement of not paying the people who are not working, I think the President should be number one because he barely works. And the truth is that these are the things that escalate the problems. You can’t keep escalating the problems by engaging in the things that made them.
Our higher institutions are too important to be played with the technical part of laws. Let’s put the money they asked for. They are specific about how much they want. Let’s find the money and give it to them. Their demands have been the same since the 1990s.”
The AAC standard bearer maintained that education was too important and even though it could be said that education was expensive, it was not as expensive as it was seen compared to its importance in the society.
ASUU had gone on strike on February 14, 2022, over the government’s alleged failure to meet its demands, including improved funding for government-owned tertiary institutions in the country.
The strike, which lasted for eight months ended on October 14, but while the lecturers expected the government to pay them for the period they were on strike, the government insisted on enforcing the ‘No work, no pay’ policy, hence, the lecturers were paid half salary for October.
Following this, ASUU branches had been protesting the half-pay.
Some netizens are reacting coldly to Peter Obi’s reasons for not visiting Beatrice Itubo, the Labour Party’s gubernatorial candidate in Rivers state, during his trip to the state on Thursday.
Obi was in Port Harcourt for the inauguration of the Nkpolu Oroworukwo flyover.
At the event, Obi endorsed Siminalaye Fubara, the governorship candidate of the rival Peoples Democratic Party (PDP).
After the inauguration, Obi visited the LP presidential state coordinator and other party stakeholders but failed to ask for the party’s governorship candidate, who was absent from his meetings.
Itubo, fondly called Iron Lady has been on sick bed for two weeks as a result of a domestic accident she had while planning for one of their Labour Party campaigns in Port Harcourt.
Itubo, despite being on sickbed mobilized fellow party members, printed posters and erected billboards ahead of Obi’s visit to the state.
Although Obi apologized on Twitter for his mistake, netizens did not buy his explanation and apology, saying the apology lacks sincerity.
They believe his apology did not specially address his offensive behavior of trading off Itubo for the PDP governorship candidate, Fubara, to get Governor Wike’s support for his presidential ambition.
Obi said in his apology that he was
not aware of the party’s guber candidate’s sickness.
My sincere apologies to Mrs Beatrice Itubo, the Labour Party candidate in Rivers State, for an inadvertent oversight. When I visited Port Harcourt a few days back, I was not informed or aware of her sickness,” he said.
Oga, you are not sincere. Did you consider her when you endorsed the PDP Governorship candidate in Rivers State? This your apology is an afterthought, ,” one Twitter user commented under the apology tweet.
Another Twitter user said “Peter Lai Obi, if they didn’t tell you, why not ask or perhaps you are not aware you have a Guber candidate in this state?
@_keluba said: “President dey inadvertently oversight him guber candidate � God abeg o! Is this how you’ll inadvertently oversight Nigerians on important issues then come and be apologizing on Twitter? God abeg again���
However, others, who are believed to Obi supporters said he should be forgiven if he realizes his mistake.
The Obi-Datti Media Office has said the Labour Party is preparing to for an outright victory in the 36 states of the federation including the Federal Capital Territory, Abuja, in the 2023 general elections.
The Media Office said this in a statement in Abuja, on Friday it said it was responding to a clearly unsubstantiated view expressed by a former Governor of Ekiti state, Ayo Fayose that he does not see Labour Party winning 25% in 24 states of the federation.
The Labour Party Campaign said, “Ordinarily, we would not have bordered to react to such subjective view not supported empirically but we feel such view is capable of sending the wrong message to the public if unexplained.
LP presidential candidate, Mr. Peter Obi and his Running mate, Yusuf Datti Baba-Ahmad are not targeting 24 states for victory but the entire country meaning the 36 states and the Federal Capital Territory.
“We are well aware that making 25% of the votes cast in 24 states is the minimum requirement to win the Presidency, but LP is looking at the entire country since it’s flag bearer is a national person to be limited to any region.
“Ex-Governor Fayose is certainly living in the past by refusing to capture the political mood of the country which is beyond geopolitical, ethnic, regional, state and my turn interests.“
The Media Office further noted that Nigerian youths who are driving the Obidient Movement are spread and active in every state of the federation and their target is overwhelming and outright victory across board.
It further observed that it was possible that Mr. Fayose and people who reason the way he does are relying on the old order not knowing that the Take-back-Nigeria project is actually meant to dismantle and decimate the old order and install a new vibrant and progressive system.The statement further read, “Mr. Fayose possibly due to political reason did not want to factor in the opinion polls conducted scientifically and professionally by three professional bodies, ANAP Foundation, Bloomberg and the Arewa Trust foundation all giving victory at the poll to LP’s Peter Obi.
“Since these scientifically proved polls were conducted few months ago, Peter Obi and his Obidient Movement have had their profiles ascending not declining meaning that victory in 2023 by Labour Party is being more enhanced.
“Finally, for purposes of emphasis, every indicator ahead of 2023 is showing clearly that Labour Party candidate is cruising to victory because his messages have sank with the people and has made the people’s decision to take back the country unanimous, total and unflinching.
The train has left the station and we expect progressive minds like Fayose to join.“
