The Nation Newspaper

Author: The Nation

  • Boy, 16, accused of raping girl, 3

    A 16-year-old boy, Christopher Samuel, on Tuesday appeared at a Badagry Chief Magistrates’ Court, for allegedly raping a three-year-old girl.

    He pleaded not guilty.

    Prosecuting Assistant Superintendent of Police (ASP) Akpan Nkem said the defendant committed the offence on July 24, at about 3:30pm, at Bayo Street, Aradagun, Badagry, Lagos.

    He alleged that the defendant penetrated the girl without her consent.

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    “The defendant forcefully had sex with the girl without her consent.

    “He also unlawfully removed her pant and used his finger to penetrate her, which caused her injury,’’ the prosecutor alleged.

    Chief Magistrate Patrick Adekomaiya granted the defendant N300, 000 bail with two sureties in the like sum.

    He adjourned till August 28.

  • Moses risks losing starting spot at Fenerbahce

    Former Nigeria international Victor Moses risks losing his starting spot at Fenerbahce in the new season.

    Turkish sports daily Fanatik has suggested that the Chelsea-owned winger was a shadow of himself during the preparatory matches and Deniz Türuc is now ahead of the Nigerian in manager Ersun Yanal’s pecking order of right-wingers.

    Former Netherlands U20 international Turuc joined Fenerbahce on a three-year deal from Kayserispor on August 3.

    Read Also: Etebo joins Stoke City this week

    It is claimed by the newspaper that when Rodrigues and Moses played on the wings, the quality of the attack line decreased and Turuc has sparkled in training sessions.

    In the second half of last season, the new Fenerbahce number 11 appeared in 16 matches, including ten starts.

    Moses has netted only one goal so far in pre-season against Boluspor on July 13.

  • I need to get the passion back — Joshua

    Anthony Joshua says he is determined to get his “passion” back for boxing ahead of his rematch with Andy Ruiz Jr later this year.

    The British heavyweight lost his WBA, IBF and WBO world titles with a shock defeat by Ruiz on 1 June.

    That was the first professional loss of Joshua’s career and the 29-year-old is desperate to prove it was a one off.

    “I feel strong enough and I feel I can correct my wrongs,” Joshua said.

    “I need to be around as many boxing people as possible because right now I need to soak in the experience and knowledge – and get that passion back.”

    Read Also: My dad told me to ‘get smarter’- Anthony Joshua

    Joshua’s first bout with Ruiz took place at Madison Square Garden in New York and was the Briton’s first fight in the United States.

    His promoter wants the rematch to take place in Cardiff at the Principality Stadium, but Ruiz has insisted he does not want to fight in the UK.

    “It doesn’t matter to me where it is,” Joshua said.

    “I would love it to be in Cardiff but it’s going to be on neutral ground, Ruiz is the champ so he will make some calls in that situation but I’m going to battle for it to be in the UK because it’s my stomping ground.

    “Walking out in Cardiff in front of 70, 80, 90 thousand people screaming and rooting for you to win, that type of energy that goes through your body is unstoppable and I think that could give me the little bit of edge I need to win those belts.”

  • Afrobasket: D’Tigress fly out to Senegal today

    Nigeria Women Basketball team, D’Tigress will leave for Dakar, Senegal today for the FIBA Africa Women Afrobasket, which will hold from  the 10th to 18th of August.

    The Nigerians, who are the defending champions, will hope for a successful title defence in one of the hostile grounds in African basketball. The Nigerians defeated Senegal to win the title two years ago in Mali and will have to be at their best to retain the title.

    Group A has host and 2019 finalist, Senegal, Egypt and Cote d’Ivoire. Nigeria is drawn alongside Cameroun and Tunisia in Group B, Mali squares up with Angola and RD Congo in Group C, while Group D consists of Mozambique, Cape Verde and Kenya.

    Read Also: Nigeria, six other countries to host Basketball Africa League

    Nigeria’s preliminary squad of 14 players has Captain Adaora Elonu, Jasmine Nwajei, Elo Edeferioka, Promise Amukamara, Theresa Onwuka, Aisha Balarabe, Sarah Imovhioh, Ezinne Kalu and Victoria Macaulay. Others are Ifunaya Ibekwe, Kunaiyi Pallas Akpannah, Atonye Nyingifa, Sarah Ogoke and Evelyn Akhator who were all part of the D’Tigress 2018 World Cup expedition. It was gathered that the 14 players would travel to Dakar where the final 12-man roster would be announced.

    The Nigerian team has been preparing for the championship in Lagos under the guidance Coach Otis Hughley who led the team to victory two years ago in Bamako.

    Captain of the team, Adaora Elonu, who spoke at the unveiling of the New Jersey for the team by AFA Sports, stated that the team would go to Senegal to do the country proud.

    “It will be tough in Senegal but we are prepared to give our best and retain our title. We have been training hard to be in top shape and I am sure we will all be fit when the championship begins.”

    She urged Nigerians to support the team as they gun for a back-to-back title in Senegal. “It is possible to win the title in Senegal with the support of our countrymen. On our part, we will do our best to do our country proud.”

  • Etebo joins Stoke City this week

    Super Eagles’ Midfielder Etebo Oghenekaro is expected to team up with his English Championship club side Stoke City after a long break.

    The former Warri Wolves’ midfielder played every minute for the Eagles as the Nigerian National Team won bronze at the 2019 Africa Cup of Nations (AFCON) in Egypt. He was given an extended break by Stoke City to enable him to recover on time for the new season.

    Read Also: OGHENEKARO ETEBO: Life in Championship with Stoke is tough

    Stoke lost their first game of the season against QPR and would be eager to have their last season’s best player available for the next.

  • Huge pay threatens Onyekuru’s Monaco deal

    Super Eagles of Nigeria forward Henry Onyekuru might not join French Ligue 1 side Monaco unless he drops his wage demands, Owngoalnigeria.com can reveal.

    Monaco agreed to a fee of around 14m Euros to sign him from Everton on a five-year deal but the 22-year-old who was on loan to Galatasaray last season is keen on remaining with the Turkish side who are, however, unable to sign him permanently.

    Everton wants a fee that will rise to around 20m Euros  for the wing forward, something that Galatasaray can’t afford due to their financial status and they propose to have him on loan again next season.

    Read Also: PHOTOS: Nigeria stars storm Benin as Henry Onyekuru ties the knot

    The proposal was rejected by Everton despite the strong desire of Onyekuru to play for them and he is now left to accept the decision of the club to move to Monaco but presently his wage demand is preventing the move from happening.

    Onyekuru wants similar pay to the one he earned in Turkey last season with Monaco but the club insist on maintaining their wage structure and the standoff was responsible for his non-appearance for a planned medical last week.

    Talks are still ongoing between his representatives and Monaco with many expecting the move to happen this week but if the deadlock on wages remains same then Monaco will switch to other targets.

  • Omolayo nominated for PC Athlete of the Month award

    Reigning Paralympic champion, Nigeria’s Bose Omolayo has been shortlisted for Athlete of the Month award for July by the International Paralympic Committee (IPC), NationSport reports.

    The 2016 Rio Paralympics Champion broke the world record en route to taking the women’s up to 79kg gold, pushing 142kg for her first Worlds title at the Nur-Sultan 2019 World Para Powerlifting Championships held in Kazakhstan last month.

    Other nominees for the award are Russian judoka Abdula Kuramagomedov, Malaysian powerlifter Bonnie Bunyau Gustin, Dutch wheelchair basketball player Mariska Beijer, and Italian sitting volleyball athlete Silvia Biasi.

    Kuramagomedov earned a shock victory at the European Judo Championships, beating Georgian world champion Zviad Gogotchuri in the men’s 100 kilograms category in Genoa.

    Read Also: U20 WOMEN’S WORLD CUP: FIFA inspection team arrives today

    The 20-year-old Gustin upset Paralympic champions Paul Kehinde and Liu Lei, pushing 207kg to claim his first senior major title at the World Championships in Nur-Sultan in the men’s 65kg.

    Beijer was top scorer at the Women’s Wheelchair Basketball European Championship in Rotterdam with 170 points, including 24 in the final victory over Britain.

    Defensive specialist Biasi was instrumental in the women’s team qualifying for next year’s Paralympic Games in Tokyo, via their first-ever historic European Championship medal with silver against Russia in Budapest.

    The winners in 2019 so far have been Dutch Alpine skier Jeroen Kampschreur, Chinese taekwondo fighter Yujie Li, Dutch snowboarder Lisa Bunschoten, Australian athlete Michael Roeger, Japanese wheelchair tennis player Koji Sugeno, and Spanish swimmer Antoni Ponce.

    The public can vote for the winner by visiting the IPC website: https://www.paralympic.org/.

  • UTME screening: JAMB asks varsities to update portals

    The Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board (JAMB) has advised universities and other tertiary institutions in the country to regularly download and update their records to remain up-to-speed with the list of applicants seeking admission into their institutions, as forwarded to them by the board.

    JAMB’s Zonal Coordinator for Katsina State, Mr Mohammed Kankia, told The Nation in his office in Katsina that constant refreshing of the portals would ensure that no candidate seeking admission is denied the opportunity due to negligence occasioned by the attitude of such institution.

    He said: “Several factors may necessitate change of institution by an applicant. These include the choice of course to study, the inability to meet up with the requisite admission cut-off mark, pressure from parents, particularly due to change of locations, among others.

    “We have made the process open and more simplified for them. We have informed them first through the Central Admission Processing Systems (CAPS) that on daily basis, they should download or refresh the lists and upload them on their portals. But this instruction seems to have been largely ignored.

    Read Also: JAMB UTME: Lagos inmate scores 246, set for NOUN

    “I have dispatched letters three times to the institutions in the state, and parents have been trooping to my office to ask questions. But these institutions seem not to be complying with the directive.”

    Asked what the board intended to do should the institutions fail to comply with the directive and the students are denied the opportunity to participate in the current Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination (UTME) screening, Kankia urged such disenfranchised candidates to petition the board.

    The zonal coordinator promised to attend to such petitions and do the needful.

    He said: “A candidate may even apply for a change of institution, even as at 11 p.m, assuming the portal is expected to close by midnight. If a candidate is wilfully denied the opportunity to access and register for the screening, he can petition the board.

    “JAMB gives them all they require. If they don’t want to go on admitting candidates, they can inform us to block their portals. After all, we made registration easier for them.”

  • NYSC only stable workforce in Nigeria, says DG

    The Director General of National Youth Service Corps (NYSC), Brig.-Gen. Shuaibu Ibrahim, has said the scheme remains the only stable workforce in Nigeria.

    Ibrahim spoke yesterday in Minna, the Niger State capital, during a meeting with Acting Governor Mohammed Ketso, while requesting for a location to site the Northcentral area office of the scheme.  According to him, the NYSC can be seen in all nooks and crannies of Nigeria and does not go on strike.

    The NYSC chief said there would be a big challenge if the scheme is terminated.

    “If you go to any nook and cranny in this country, you will see NYSC members. I have been to rural areas in local governments and I saw Corps members working there as doctors and in other occupations.

    Read Also: NUC, NYSC to block ‘fake’ foreign-trained graduates from service

    “I can assure you that if there are no more Corps members here and there, there will be a challenge. Corps members do not go on strike; they are in national service and are ready to put in their best,” he said.

    Ibrahim urged the state government to make Corp members comfortable for them to give in their best.

    He said: “We have got approval for the siting of six area offices in the six geo-political zones across the country. Niger State has been chosen to host the Northcentral area office.

    “We are here to appeal to the state government to provide accommodation for the workers who will be posted to man the secretariat. We hope you will oblige us this request.”

    Ketso said the state government would partner the NYSC to make the Northcentral area office a reality.  “We are ready to strengthen our relationship with all Federal Government institutions in the state. We are glad that NYSC values us enough to choose the state to site its Northcentral office.”

  • Release political prisoners, Secondus tells Buhari

    The National Chairman of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Uche Secondus, has asked President Muhammadu Buhari to release “political prisoners”.

    Addressing reporters yesterday on the side-line of a visit to Adamawa State Governor Ahmadu Fintiri at the Government House in Yola, Secondus said there should be no room for political prisoners in a democracy.

    He said: “We ask President Buhari to release political prisoners. It is not done in any political dispensation. What we are seeing today is as if we are in a military era. He should urgently release political prisoners and allow a political atmosphere and a country where there is freedom of speech.”

    Read Also: Things you should know about Sowore’s ‘Revolution Now’ movement

    Urging the media to take the lead in the campaign for free speech, Secondus added: “I want to call on journalists and media managers not to sit on the fence. They can’t just sit and watch the country sliding. They played a major role in the past, removing the country from the hands of the military. They have tempered with some among them. It is time for them to join hands with the good people of Nigeria to stand on the path of truth, on the path of democracy.”

    The PDP National Chairman stressed that freedom of conscience must be allowed in a political environment.

    He alluded to the arrest of Omoyele Sowore, the presidential candidate of the Africa Action Congress (AAC) in the last election and Convener of the #RevolutionNowMovement.

    Secondus said: “The President must release political prisoners, particularly the presidential candidate of AAC, Sowore.”

    The PDP chieftain, who said his party’s leadership was in Adamawa State to commiserate with Fintiri on the death of his father, enjoined the people to support the governor to record high performance.