The Nation Newspaper

Tag: loyalists

  • Eguavoen counsels Arsenal loyalists at Heineken Champions Planet

    Eguavoen counsels Arsenal loyalists at Heineken Champions Planet

    As all the matches of the 2nd leg of the UEFA Champions League round of 16’s get underway from next week, visitors and consumers at Heineken Champions Planet are still relishing their experiences and the outcome of the first leg matches.

    However, consolidating on its brand role by engaging consumers with the matches and other innovative games, Heineken hosted another football legend. It was the turn of former Super Eagles coach, Austin ‘Cerezo’ Eguavoen to be engaged by visitors of the Heineken Champions Planet with the matches of the night and his best moments on the national team. Moments after taking the ‘Hot Seat’, Eguavoen, who guided Super Eagles of Nigeria to win bronze at the 2006 African Cup of Nations in Egypt, told the large gathering of mainly Arsenal FC loyalists to brace up with the reality of a likely exit of their team in this season’s competition.

    “We have to face the reality that the team has a high mountain to climb especially against a compact Bayern Munich side that dominated play all through the night at the Emirates Stadium in London,” the defender who was part of the AFCON victory for Nigeria in 1994 in Tunisia said.

    While his remarks were a delight to other rival fans of the North London club who were in the house, famous Disc Jockey Jimmy Jatt and other invited guests with the army of Arsenal supporters were initially down cast but were quick to brace up and with the hope of turning around the huge deficit when they travel to Alliaz Arena in Munich on the 13th of March for the return leg.

    “The UEFA Champions League has thrown some funny results in the past and there could still be hope for Arsenal if they go into the return leg match with the right attitude and Bayern fail to play at their optimum,” Eguavoen remarked.

    An elated consumer remarked that: “AC Milan appeared to have copied the tactics of Chelsea and Celtic-the only sides to have beaten Barcelona in their past 25 matches in Europe -by soaking up waves of attacks before hitting back on counter breaks!”

    World Footballer of the Year, Lionel Messi was completely anonymous through out the match with only one shot at goal by Andres Iniesta in spite of their domination. While goals from Kevin-Prince Boateng and Sulley Muntari (both from Ghana) in the second half wrapped up historic celebration at the Heineken Champions Planet and Milan city.

    The surprise results of the night in all the four matches also had an unfavourable effect on points scored by consumers and visitors who played the StarPlayer app. With very few goal opportunities that later transformed into reality, many of players could not anticipate correctly.

    With the matches becoming more complicated, many of them will have to sharpen their innate anticipatory skills when the all-important second leg matches are played next month in order to win premium Heineken gift items.

    The fun and excitement of this season are not limited to the Heineken Champions Planet alone because videos episodes of visitors experience will be broadcast across the nation on major TV stations. Live reports from the Heineken Champions Planet are also available on Nigeria Info Live radio commentaries and twitter at Heineken_NG. Heineken consumers in Nigeria can be part of the exclusive experience by visiting any selected Heineken world class bar or taking part in the quizzes on Heineken face book page.

  • Taraba PDP moves against Suntai’s loyalists

    The crisis in the Taraba State chapter of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) has taken a new twist as the party’s stakeholders are calling for the dissolution of the Executive Committee (Exco) put in place by the ailing Governor Danbaba Suntai.

    Suntai is undergoing medical treatment in Germany for the injuries he sustained in a plane crash in Adamawa State last October 25.

    Last week, the governor’s personal effects were evacuated from his official home in Jalingo, the state capital.

    A delegation of the stakeholders, led by the former governor of the state, Rev. Jolly Nyame, yesterday protested the continued stay in office of members of the Exco, who are Suntai’s loyalists.

    Two serving senators from the state, Senators Aisha Alhassan (Taraba North) and Abubakar Tutare (Taraba Central) were also in the delegation. The former chairman of the state PDP, Alhaji Abdumumini Vaki, was also in the entourage.

    The group alleged that members of the Exco were single-handedly imposed on the party by Governor Suntai against the wishes of the majority of party members.

    They added that the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) had written to the party, saying the congresses that produced the Exco were not conducted according to the commission’s guidelines.

    Vaki, who read a position paper on behalf of the group, said many of them were disenfranchised from participating in the congresses.

    He added that aggrieved members, who felt short changed by the exercise and demanded that internal democracy be observed in the process, were being persecuted by the governor before he was involved in the plane crash.

    Vaki said: “What Governor Suntai did was to handpick his cronies, whom he charged with the responsibility of selecting who should be the party executives at all levels.

    “The governor’s cronies produced a list of so-called party executives at all levels without any election as confirmed by INEC or consensus by stakeholders as directed by the national headquarters and President Goodluck Jonathan.

    “As the chairman at the time, I was sidelined because I advised that internal democratic rules be observed.

    “Also, none of our two serving senators, Alhassan and Tature, was contacted or involved in the process of producing the so-called consensus list of executives. The executives were imposed on us by the governor.”

    The group also alleged that the governor had handed the machinery of the party to the All Nigeria Peoples Party (ANPP) from where he defected to the PDP.

    “His affiliation with other political parties was displayed when he appointed many members of his former party (ANPP) into key positions in the current PDP Exco, when there were many founding, original and authentic members of the PDP, who were interested in contesting but were denied,” the group said.

    The Deputy National Chairman of the PDP, Dr. Sam Jaja, who received the delegation on behalf of the National Chairman, assured the group that their complaints would be looked into and that appropriate action would be taken to redress the anomalies.