The Nation Newspaper

Author: The Nation

  • Leverkusen eye Peter Olayinka

    Leverkusen eye Peter Olayinka

    Our Reporter

     

    NIGERIA international Peter Olayinka is on the radar of Bayer Leverkusen in the January transfer window, according to German football magazine Kicker,

    Bayer Leverkusen are in the market for a winger as they have only three players in that department – Moussa Diaby, Leon Bailey and Karim Bellarabi.

    The Bundesliga club have on their wish list Nordsjaelland’s Kamaldeen Sulemana and Slavia Prague’s Peter Olayinka.

    Bayer Leverkusen have a dossier on the attack-minded player as he netted the winner against them in the group stage of this season’s Europa League.

    Last summer, VfB Stuttgart were priced out of a deal for the 25-year-old, with Slavia Prague demanding ten million euros for their number 9.

    Olayinka is tied to the Czech champions until June 30, 2023, having extended his contract with the club last month.

    Olayinka had stints with KF Skënderbeu, SV Zulte Waregem, FK Dukla Prag and FK Bylis Ballsh before joining Slavia Prague for 3.2 million Euros in the summer of 2018.

  • Semi Ajayi’s West Brom place under threat

    Semi Ajayi’s West Brom place under threat

     Oluwamayomikun Orekoya

     

    SUPER Eagles defender Semi Ajayi’s place in West Bromwich’s defence is under threat as new boss Sam Allardyce prioritise strengthening his defence in the January transfer window.

    The Baggies have conceded 39 goals in the league this campaign – the division’s worst record – and are 19th in the Premier League – six points from safety – and have scored just 11 goals in 17 top-flight games this season.

    Allardyce, who replaced Slaven Bilic as the Baggies’ manager last month, is targeting a move for a centre-back and revealed on Sunday that he had already lined up three players who he wanted to bring to West Brom this month – but claims that the recently agreed Brexit deal scuppered those plans.

    Allardyce, who has shopped overseas while on survival missions at Sunderland, Crystal Palace and Everton previously and has found useful players to aid those relegation escapes, indicated that shopping abroad is becoming more difficult after Brexit – which officially began on New Year’s Day – because EU-based players who enjoyed that freedom before now require permits.

    Ajayi has had a mixed season with West Brom so far, featuring in 16 of the Baggies 17 Premier League games, with a goal to his name and two yellow cards.

  • Balogun dedicates derby win to Ibrox disaster victims

    Balogun dedicates derby win to Ibrox disaster victims

    Our Reporter

     

    GLASGOW Rangers and Nigeria international defender Leon Balogun dedicated his team’s Old firm derby match against Celtic to victims of the Ibrox disaster.

    With the club marking the 50th anniversary of the Ibrox disaster which claimed the lives of 66 fans, Balogun knew the game took on extra significance for fans across the world.

    Balogun produced an outstanding performance in the Gers defence, helping the side to an 18th clean sheet of the season in the league from 22 matches played so far, and he was understandably thrilled to taste victory in his first derby outing.

    Callum McGregor’s own goal was the difference between the sides and Steven Gerrard’s side are now 19 points clear on top of the Scottish Premier league.

    “It is a big anniversary today of what was a very sad incident, so that is some way to give back and make the fans, and especially the families, a little gift,” The 32-year-old defender said.

    “But as a club, and with the big family we are, it is massive. Every Old Firm you win is massive, but even more-so today.”

    “And to win an Old Firm game on that day it is probably some kind of comfort to some of the people who have been affected, the families,” he added

    “And it is a great gift from us as representatives of the club to the supporters for the New Year, on that day.”

  • Monarch donates food items, equipment to charity

    Monarch donates food items, equipment to charity

    Our Reporter

     

    TO commemorate his 68th birthday during the yuletide, the Ojora of Ijoraland, Oba Fatai Oyeyinka Aromire, Oyegbemi II donated to four charity homes.

    The gifts include food items and equipment for homes of motherless babies, the aged, and the destitute.

    Among the beneficiaries were Old People’s Homes, Sabo-Yaba; Motherless Babies Homes, Ijora Badia; Hearts of Gold Children’s Hospice in Surulere and Red Cross Motherless and Abandoned Babies Home, Makoko, Yaba.

    The monarch said: “On my 68th birthday, I thank God for keeping me alive. It has not been an easy road.

    “I have been able to manage my young physique through God. If you have faith in God and you don’t keep malice, you are fine in life.

    “Regarding my daily routine, I wake up in the morning and say my prayers to my God, then I hit the gym and that’s all.”

    Three eminent personalities conferred with chieftaincy titles by the monarch include Adisa Olatoye as Balogun Onibaba II, Chief Otitonaye Owa Fadeke as Iyalode Marine Beach, and Chief Olufunmilayo Akande-Mohammed as Yeye Bobaselu of Ojoraland.

    READ ALSO: Monarch claims legitimacy, preaches against violence

    Having won a court case that lingered for 37 years, for the royal family, the monarch took time to discuss his pedigree.

    Oba Fatai Oyeyinka Aromire

    “I grew up in this (Ijora) community. I had my HND from Yabatech and studied Electronics. I started with the Nigerian Prisons Service and I left in 1979 before I resumed as the Director of Operations of the royal family.

    “If I wasn’t a king today, I would be a lawyer and that is why I have enrolled to study Law in school now,” he said.

    In what he described as borne out of passion, since the wake of COVID-19, the Ojora of Ijoraland has been feeding over 5,000 people within his community. On this, he said: “I didn’t just start because of the pandemic. It is what I have been doing for the past 26 years without collecting a dime from anyone. I have been doing it since. It is in my blood.

    “I have also rebuilt some burnt police stations and I just donated some vehicles to the police too.

    “I like to attend to my people all the time and I hope to always attend to them every time. I have given over 30 students scholarship and God helping me, I want to do more. That includes both indigenes and non-indigenes.

    “Studying Law at 68, I want to keep myself busy and also garner more knowledge in Law.”

    When asked about his eating habit and for what he wants to be remembered for, the monarch revealed — “I eat twice in a day and I don’t have any special food. For what I want to be remembered for, I want people to judge me themselves.”

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

  • Monkey village demolition: I acted legally, says engineer

    Monkey village demolition: I acted legally, says engineer

    Robert Egbe and Chinyere Okoroafor

     

    AN engineer, Abiodun Ariori, has faulted allegations by a former Second Vice-President of the Nigerian Bar Association (NBA), Mr Monday Ubani, that he acted illegally last Thursday while recovering landed property in Ikeja area of Lagos.

    Ubani claimed in a Facebook post on December 31 that Ariori procured land grabbers and officials of Lagos State Government, who illegally invaded and forcibly occupied Monkey Village, around Opebi and demolished residents’ houses.

    But, in a statement, Ariori denied being a land grabber, adding that the government officials merely enforced a Supreme Court judgment in favour of judgment-creditor, the Meadows family.

    He said: “We’ve been in possession of the land (Opebi) for more than 20 years. About six months ago, we were trying to erect some structures on the land when we found out that some mechanics had taken over the place and we reported them to Zone II (Police Command) of which they were all arrested. That’s when we met lawyer Ubani, who came to facilitate their bail and ordered them back to our land that has Supreme Court verdict backing us. Since we’ve been trying to work on that land, he (lawyer Ubani) has been using police to frustrate our efforts.

    “So, our lawyer wrote a petition to the Attorney General of the State to assist on the issue of which they obliged. Based on that, the Lagos State Government carried out further investigation about the matter. Before then, the people in the area wrote the government to eject the miscreants out of the land as a result of their criminalities. The State Government carried out the execution on the 31st of December, last year. I was surprised when lawyer Ubani started attacking me while calling me several names in the media.”

    In his post, Ubani alleged that he had filed a suit against anyone claiming that they were enforcing a Supreme Court judgment by invading the land, but that no one had filed any response to the suit.

     

     

  • France under fire for slow vaccine rollouts

    France under fire for slow vaccine rollouts

    Our Reporter

     

    THE campaign to vanquish the coronavirus is picking up speed, with Britain beginning to dispense the second vaccine in its arsenal today.

    But authorities in France and elsewhere in Europe are coming under fire for slow rollouts and delays.

    In the U.S., meanwhile, government officials reported that vaccinations have accelerated markedly after a sluggish start. Dr Anthony Fauci, the nation’s top infectious-disease expert, said over the weekend that 1.5 million shots were administered in 72 hours, bringing the total over the past three weeks to about 4 million.

    Britain became the first nation to start using the Covid-19 vaccine developed by AstraZeneca and Oxford University, ramping up its nationwide inoculation campaign amid soaring infection rates blamed on a new and seemingly more contagious variant of the virus.

    Brian Pinker, an 82-year-old dialysis patient, received the first shot at Oxford University Hospital, saying in a statement: “I can now really look forward to celebrating my 48th wedding anniversary.”

    Britain’s vaccination programme began December 8 with the shot developed by Pfizer and its German partner BioNTech.

    The country has recorded more than 50,000 new coronavirus infections a day over the past six days, and deaths have climbed past 75,000, one of the worst tolls in Europe.

    Prime Minister Boris Johnson announced a wave of near-lockdowns the weekend before Christmas and warned yesterday that “tough, tough” weeks lie ahead and that tighter restrictions were coming into force: “If you look at the numbers, there’s no question we will have to take tougher measures.”

     

     

     

  • Foundation lifts hearing-impaired children

    Foundation lifts hearing-impaired children

    Gbenga Bada

     

    A NON-PROFITABLE foundation, Toni and Tosin Foundation, has donated books and food items to hearing-impaired children.

    The deaf community in Nigeria ended the year on a high note as the foundation celebrated the yuletide with over 600 deaf and hearing-impaired children across the country.

    The foundation distributed gifts, school supplies as well as food and drinks to students and pupils in three schools for the deaf.

    The celebrations took place in Christian Mission School for the Deaf, Ibadan, Ajofa Special Education Foundation for the Deaf, Mowe, and the Kwara State School for Special Needs, Ilorin.

    The Toni and Tosin Foundation, a charitable organisation based in the UK, was set up to bring hope to the deaf community in Nigeria and to positively transform the lives of deaf children.

    The foundation was set up by Oyin Kalejaiye, a mother of three boys, including identical twin boys who were born profoundly deaf.

    The challenges she faced, as well as the experience raising her twin boys, Toni and Tosin, inspired her to start the foundation.

    Kalejaiye said: “The mission is to support and empower the Deaf and Hearing Impaired in Nigeria, while their vision is to remove barriers, create opportunities and help the Deaf and Hearing Impaired in the Nigerian society to succeed and thrive. As a foundation, the goal is to provide funds and resources for education, specialist provisions, and inclusion within mainstream provisions – to ensure excellent holistic education for the Deaf and Hearing Impaired child.”

    Kalejaiye also said the charitable organisation is set out to make a positive difference with a commitment to ensuring that every single deaf person they support succeeds and thrives.

     

  • Iran resumes enriching uranium to 20% purity at Fordo facility

    Iran resumes enriching uranium to 20% purity at Fordo facility

    Agency Reporter

     

    IRAN has resumed enriching uranium to 20% purity, in its most significant breach yet of the 2015 nuclear deal with world powers.

    The global nuclear watchdog confirmed that the process had begun at the underground Fordo plant on Monday.

    Enriched uranium can be used to make reactor fuel but also nuclear bombs. Weapons-grade uranium is 90% purity.

    Iran, which insists that its nuclear programme is peaceful, has rolled back a number of commitments under the deal.

    It has said it is retaliating for the US economic sanctions that were reinstated in 2018 by President Donald Trump when he abandoned the accord, also known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA).

    But Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Iran’s decision “can’t be explained in any way except as continued realisation of its intention to develop a military nuclear programme”.

    “Israel will not allow Iran to manufacture nuclear weapons,” he added.

    European Union spokesman Peter Stano said Iran’s move constituted “a considerable departure from Iran’s nuclear commitments under the JCPOA with serious nuclear non-proliferation implications”.

    In a separate development, Iran’s Revolutionary Guards said they had seized a South Korean-flagged chemical tanker in the Gulf “due to the repeated infringement of maritime environmental laws”.

    South Korea’s foreign ministry demanded its immediate release of the Hankuk Chemi and said a South Korean anti-piracy unit stationed in the Strait of Hormuz had been dispatched to the area.

    Rabiei told the Irna news agency that the process of enriching uranium to 20% had started “a couple of hours ago” at Fordo.

    President Hassan Rouhani had ordered the move because he was “bound” by a new law requiring the production and storage of at least 120kg (265lbs) of 20%-enriched uranium annually for peaceful purposes, he said.

    Iran’s parliament passed the law following the assassination in late November of the country’s top nuclear scientist, Mohsen Fakhrizadeh, which Iranian leaders blamed on Israel.

    Later yesterday, the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) confirmed Iran’s move in a report to member states.

    “Iran today began feeding uranium already enriched up to 4.1% U-235 into six centrifuge cascades at the Fordo Fuel Enrichment Plant for further enrichment up to 20%,” a statement said.

    Enriched uranium is produced by feeding uranium hexafluoride gas into centrifuges to separate out the most suitable isotope for nuclear fission, called U-235.

    Low-enriched uranium, which typically has a 3-5% purity of U-235, can be used to produce fuel for commercial nuclear power plants.

    Highly enriched uranium has a concentration of 20% or more and is used in research reactors.

     

     

     

     

  • Democrats ask FBI to probe U.S President over Georgia phone call

    Democrats ask FBI to probe U.S President over Georgia phone call

    Our Reporter

     

    TWO Democratic members of the U.S. House on Monday asked the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) to open a probe into outgoing President Donald Trump’s leaked phone call that asked an official of Georgia State to find votes for himself.

    “As members of Congress and former prosecutors, we believe Donald Trump engaged in solicitation of, or conspiracy to commit, a number of election crimes,” Ted Lieu and Kathleen Rice wrote in their letter to FBI Director Christopher Wray.

    “We ask you to open an immediate criminal investigation into the president,” they added.

    During the one-hour phone call, Trump is heard pressuring Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger to find 11,780 votes in order to beat his Democratic opponent Joe Biden to gain victory in Georgia for the 2020 presidential election.

    Raffensperger, however, responds, “Mr. President, the challenge that you have is, the data you have is wrong,” after Trump asks him to announce he has “recalculated” the vote count.

    The two lawmakers said “the evidence of election fraud by Mr. Trump is now in broad daylight,” adding: “Given the more than ample factual predicate, we are making a criminal referral to you to open an investigation into Mr. Trump.”

    Despite Biden’s victory in Nov. 3 elections, Trump has so far refused to concede in the race, while he has spent the last two months challenging the result.

    As Democratic Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of New York said Sunday that Trump’s conduct in the phone call was “impeachable,” it reminded many of his phone call with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky in July 2019, asking him to investigate Biden and his son Hunter.

    That phone call led the House to start a formal impeachment inquiry into Trump in September 2019, but the president was later acquitted by the Senate.

    On Trump’s phone call about Georgia, House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jerrold Nadler said in a statement Sunday that Trump “thinks he can use his office to pressure state officials to change the outcome of the election”.

    “In threatening these officials with vague ‘criminal’ consequences, and in encouraging them to ‘find’ additional votes and hire investigators who ‘want to find answers,’ the President may have also subjected himself to additional criminal liability,” he added.

  • 10 former Pentagon chiefs warn Trump against involving military in electoral claims

    10 former Pentagon chiefs warn Trump against involving military in electoral claims

    Our Reporter

     

    TEN former secretaries of defence are cautioning against any move to involve the military in pursuing claims of election fraud, in an extraordinary rebuke of U.S. President Donald Trump

    They argued that it would take the country into “dangerous, unlawful and unconstitutional territory”.

    The 10 men, both Democrats and Republicans, signed on to an opinion article published Sunday in The Washington Post that implicitly questioned Trump’s willingness to follow his constitutional duty to peacefully relinquish power on Jan. 20. Following the Nov. 3 election and subsequent recounts in some states, as well as unsuccessful court challenges, the outcome is clear, they wrote, while not specifying Trump in the article.

    “The time for questioning the results has passed; the time for the formal counting of the electoral college votes, as prescribed in the constitution and statute, has arrived,” they wrote.

    The former Pentagon chiefs warned against use of the military in any effort to change the outcome.

    “Efforts to involve the U.S. armed forces in resolving election disputes would take us into dangerous, unlawful and unconstitutional territory,” they wrote. “Civilian and military officials who direct or carry out such measures would be accountable, including potentially facing criminal penalties, for the grave consequences of their actions on our republic.”

    Read Also: Biden accuses Trump of damaging critical security agencies

    A number of senior military officers, including Gen. Mark Milley, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, have said publicly in recent weeks that the military has no role in determining the outcome of U.S. elections and that their loyalty is to the constitution, not to an individual leader or a political party.

    The Washington Post reported that the idea for writing the opinion piece began with a conversation between former U.S. vice-president Dick Cheney and Eric Edelman, a retired ambassador and former senior Pentagon official, about how Trump might seek to use the military in coming days.

    The 10 former Pentagon leaders also warned in their article of the dangers of impeding a full and smooth transition at Defence Department prior to Inauguration Day as part of a transfer of power to president-elect Joe Biden. Biden has complained of efforts by Trump-appointed Pentagon officials to obstruct the transition.

    Without mentioning a specific example, the former defence secretaries wrote that transfers of power “often occur at times of international uncertainty about U.S. national security policy and posture,” adding, “They can be a moment when the nation is vulnerable to actions by adversaries seeking to take advantage of the situation.”