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Tag: release

  • Jaiye Kuti set to release Jaiyeola Ni Mo Nje

    Jaiye Kuti set to release Jaiyeola Ni Mo Nje

    Almost five years after she produced her critically acclaimed movie, Eni Agbelegbu Mi, beautiful crossover actress, Jaiye Kuti, is set to excite her numerous fans in and outside the country with another flick entitled Jaiyeola Ni Mo Nje.

    The mother of two, who made her debut in acting with her impressive role in Laffpattern about 10 years ago, told The Nation that the story is woven around her personal life experiences, while growing up.

    Kuti, who is the CEO of Jaylex Productions, disclosed that the theme centres on “African cultures and belief in destiny”. According to her, “It is about real life experiences, though with a bit of drama. It also has some entertainment values; it is a comedy in a different form. It was shot in Ikorodu area of Lagos and it cost me N1.2million. ”

    When asked to talk about the inspiration behind the title, Kuti, a graduate of English from the University of Lagos, Akoka, recalled that it was borne out of an encounter with her grandmother during the wedding of her sister sometime ago. She said, “Immediately my grandmother sighted me, she started singing the familiar song that the family had composed for me in the belief that I was an abiku. I was told that my mother had given birth to three children who all died before my birth.”

    The movie, which will be marketed by Epsalum Productions, features Wasiu Alabi Pasuma, Fathia Balogun, Femi Adebayo, Bayo Salami, Fadeyi Oloro and Madam Saje, among other top Yoruba actors.

    In Jaiyeola Ni Mo Nje, directed by Oluwale Samson Adebayo, Oga Bello and Madam Saje play the parents to Jaiye who is in love with Pasuma

  • Security agency may release stowaway-boy today

    Security agency may release stowaway-boy today

    The State Security Service (SSS) may release the stowaway-boy, Daniel Ohikhena, today.

    Daniel beat security at the Benin Airport to get into the under carriage of an Arik Air aircraft, which landed in Lagos on August 24.

    A security source told The Nation that operatives of the SSS might have concluded investigations on the circumstances leading to how the teenager entered the aircraft’s tyre compartment.

    The source said the operatives investigated the popular thinking that the teenager might have embarked on the controversial flight out of adventure without any motive to blow up the aircraft.

    Aviation authorities, including the Federal Airport Authority of Nigeria (FAAN) and the Nigeria Civil Aviation Authority (NCAA) are closing identified gaps in previous audit of the airport to avoid a recurrence of the incident.

    Aviation security experts have challenged FAAN to step up security to forestall runway incursions at the airports.

    The experts advised FAAN to go beyond patrolling the airside with operational vehicles and personnel, adding that it should deploy the latest technology that could capture the activities around the airport from the point of boarding until the aircraft takes off.

    The Chairman of Aviation Stakeholders Squaretable, Capt Balarabe Usman, told reporters in Lagos yesterday that the aviation industry had suffered years of neglect, which was inherited by the present administration.

    According to him, security equipment and facilities were allowed to decay. There were efforts to build perimeter fencing at the airports, especially at the major airports, but such efforts were abandoned halfway.

    Another security expert and the CEO of Centurion Securities Limited, Group Captain John Ojikutu (rtd), said during the audit of airport security by the International Civil Aviation Organisation, FAAN failed to provide perimeter fencing and security fencing of the airports in 2004, 2006 and 2008.

    Usman, the former chief security officer of FAAN and an aviation security consultant, also said if the agency had completed the initial projects on perimeter fencing, the situation would not have degenerated to the level where some airports do not have perimeter fencing.

    “While we decry the failure of FAAN to provide adequate security at the airside of some of these airports, we have to also hail the efforts being made by the Ministry of Aviation to reinforce security to forestall such incidents happening in future. I know that what this government inherited in terms of airport facilities were decayed terminals, security equipment and non-existing facilities, but since it started this remodelling programme, we have witnessed what have been achieved in so short a time and we know that in a question of months, most airports will have perimeter fencing and operational vehicles,” Usman said.

    “The Federal Government has started the deployment of sophisticated screening equipment at the airports and simultaneously kicked off the training of personnel to man this equipment.”

  • APC demands release of authentic results of Offa poll rerun

    APC demands release of authentic results of Offa poll rerun

    The All Progressives Congress (APC) has called for the immediate release and announcement of the authentic results of Saturday’s rerun in the Offa Local Government Area of Kwara State by the state Independent Electoral Commission (KWASIEC).

    In a statement yesterday in London by its Interim National Publicity Secretary, Alhaji Lai Mohammed, the party said the cooked up results announced yesterday by the Kwara State Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), in which the party brazenly converted its defeat to victory, are totally unacceptable and would not stand.

    It said the authentic results of the elections, which are in possession of KWASIEC as well as security agencies, showed that the APC got 11,526 votes to PDP’s 4,668, as against the cooked up figures announced by the PDP in Ilorin, which awarded the PDP 35,937 and the APC 20,161.

    APC expressed shock at the antics of the Electoral Officer (EO) of Offa Local Government and other KWASIEC officials, who sneaked out of the collation centre when the results were to be announced and have yet to carry out their assigned duties.

    “The next thing was that the PDP took the law into its own hands and announced the cooked up results via the state’s radio station on Sunday morning. This impunity is condemnable and will be fought to a logical conclusion, using the instrumentality of the law.

    “There is no iota of doubt that the APC won the elections. It is common knowledge that if the elections were conducted 10 times, APC will beat the PDP 10 times. Offa people know who they voted for and are ready to defend their votes. Therefore, any attempt to thwart the will of the people will be resisted to the hilt.

    “Thanks to technology, which has made rigging unfashionable and untenable, the results of the elections were collated ward-by-ward and available to all. Even the people successfully challenged the PDP’s plan to rig the polls by ensuring that only 100 of the 500 ballot papers for each polling booth were supplied. The people demanded and got all 500 votes for each of the 86 polling booths, thus making it impossible for the PDP to steal 400 votes from each polling booth,” it said.

    While appealing to its members and supporters to remain peaceful, APC warned against any attempt to provoke the people who went out peacefully to elect their councillors and chairman on Saturday.

    “For any government to have legitimacy, it must derive such from the people. But where the will of the people is being wilfully subverted, it can only be an invitation to anarchy, which has now become the hallmark of the PDP. Little wonder the party has now broken up. That is what happens when a party is anti-democratic and recklessly subverts the will of the people.

    “Therefore, we demand the immediate announcement of the authentic results and the swearing in of the chairman, who was elected on the platform of the APC. Nothing else will be acceptable to our party and the people of Offa Local Government,” the party warned.

    A chieftain of the Kwara State All Progressives Congress (APC), Mr Dele Belgore (SAN), and the candidate of the party , Prince Saheed Popoola, have rejected the purported announcement of the result on Radio Kwara.

    The duo said the radio station was acting the familiar script of the PDP.

    KWSIEC yesterday declared Prince Abdulwaheed Olanipekun of the PDP the winner of the election on Radio Kwara’s 6am news bulletin.

    Belgore was the 2011 governorship candidate of the defunct Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN). He urged the KWASIEC to announce the duly signed result, which was given to party agents before the Returning Officer “secretly” left the local government collation centre for Ilorin, the state capital.

    In a statement by his media aide, Rafiu Ajakaye, Belgore asked: “When did the Kwara Radio become the exclusive place to announce results of an election that held in open space across a local council? Why were all other media representatives and party chieftains, who were at the KWASIEC till daybreak, not called to witness the announcement?”

    The statement added: “I am scandalised beyond words the impunity that is playing out following the peaceful and orderly conduct of the Offa Local Government rerun. As at 12.50am, the KWASIEC Chairman, Dr Uthman Ajidagba, was telling all parties’ agents and representatives, who had come from Offa to Ilorin, that they should return to KWASIEC office in Ilorin at 10am for the official announcement of the result.

    “Strangely, at 6am on Sunday, Radio Kwara – in a martial manner mimicking the military overthrow of a civilian government – repeatedly announced that the PDP had been declared winner of the rerun.

    “We take it that Radio Kwara, in its characteristic manner, was merely acting the script of the party in power in the state. We are expecting proper announcement from the umpire, the KWASIEC. What has been announced on Radio Kwara is not known to the law and we take it that KWASIEC will still call us for result announcement. They should come and announce the election result in accordance with the duly signed result that has been given to political parties in Offa.”

    He said: “I am shocked, as everyone else here and everywhere across the world where the Offa rerun was monitored. As everyone else, I am still waiting for KWASIEC to say: ‘Look, we never authorised the silly announcement on Kwara Radio;just ignore them, please!’

    “Interestingly, by 5.30pm on Saturday, the duly signed result from the 12 wards in Offa was already in at the local government collation centre in Offa. The result showed clearly that APC trounced the PDP in 11 of the 12 wards. The PDP won only in Igboodun Ward. In all, APC scored 11,526 as against PDP’s 4,668.

    “For the avoidance of doubts, the results from the 12 wards are as follows: Balogun Ward: APC – 1,129, PDP – 504; Shawo Central: APC – 1,132, PDP -435; Shawo Southwest: APC – 1,171, PDP – 372; Shawo Southeast: APC – 1,054, PDP – 370; Essa A.: APC – 639, PDP – 363; Essa B.: APC – 644, PDP – 381; Ojomu Northwest: APC – 1,314, PDP – 446; Ojomu Central I: APC – 866, PDP – 373; Ojomu Central 2: APC – 866, PDP- 373; Ojomu Southeast: APC – 1,374, PDP – 427; Ogbodun: APC – 268, PDP – 381; and Essa C: APC – 972, PDP – 351. “The grand total is APC – 11,526 and PDP – 4,668. “This is the total result contained on the forms signed by all the agents and KWASIEC officials. We have copies of them as obtained by our agents who had gone to the local government secretariat of the KWASIEC in Offa for the final collation and announcement.

    “This is one impunity too many. It cannot stand. We shall challenge it in every peaceful and lawful manner. As every Nigerian of good conscience, I join the good people of Offa to condemn this atrocious behaviour of the electoral body, which has no doubt stripped it of any claim to civility or credibility. Clearly, the election was just a mere window-dressing! We cannot continue on this catastrophic path; not any more. It is unacceptable.

    “As law-abiding party and citizens, we will challenge the whole mess in the court of law. But clearly, whatever has been announced on Radio Kwara is provocative and a deliberate attempt to provoke the Offa people into violence.

    “To be fair to the security agents, the conduct of the poll was peaceful and orderly. But what happened between 5pm, when the results from the polling units were collated, and this morning, when Radio Kwara announced that PDP had been declared victorious, has confirmed the fact that election results are altered only behind people’s backs.”

  • CAF Champions League: Emordi begs for Mba, Agbim’s release

    CAF Champions League: Emordi begs for Mba, Agbim’s release

    Enugu Rangers coach Okey Emordi has begged for the release of new signings in time for Sunday’s Champions League clash against Angola’s Recreativo do Libolo.

    Rangers are yet to reach an agreement with Warri Wolves over the clearance of international stars Sunday Mba and Chigozie Agbim even after they registered them for the continental competition.

    “It is a very disturbing scenario we find ourselves in at the moment. It has come to the point where I have to make this passionate appeal to our fellow clubs to release their players that we have registered for the continental competition,” Emordi said.

    “We really need the understanding of these clubs in this regard. This is a competition we are representing the country and they have to see it as a Nigerian project.”

    Emordi said he expects Recreativo to stretch his team in Sunday’s Champions League clash at home.

    “I expect a very tough game from the Angolans but I am very sure that we shall overcome them. By God’s grace, we shall find our range that day so as to make the return leg a mere formality. I just pray that we get the clearance of some of the players we are still to get,” he said.

    Rangers walked over Sao-Tome and Principe side Sporting Club in the preliminary round while they beat Vital’O of Burundi 2-0 aggregate in the previous round of the competition.

  • PDP governors to release Jonathan’s one-term pact

    PDP governors to release Jonathan’s one-term pact

    It is about two years away, but 2015 is already sparking big rows.

    Niger State Governor Babangida Aliyu spoke at the weekend on an agreement which he said the President signed – that he (Dr. Goodluck Jonathan) would spend one term in office.

    The Presidency is yet to react to the statement, but more Peoples Democratic Party (PDP)governors are threatening to release copies of the agreement.

    Aliyu’s statement is said to have rattled the Presidency.

    It was also learnt that some National Assembly leaders are claiming to know about the one-term agreement with the governors.

    The Nation learnt that all PDP governors have copies of the agreement, which was allegedly signed before the presidential primaries in January, 2011.

    A source said the agreement accounted for why the Northern governors dumped former Vice-President Atiku Abubakar who lost woefully at the presidential primaries.

    It was learnt that Jonathan entered into the agreement “to appease the North”.

    According to another Northern governor, who spoke with some PDP leaders and National Assembly members yesterday in Abuja , the “one-term agreement is real”. “We are just waiting for the right time to talk,” he said.

    “I have a copy of the agreement and some of us have come together to enforce the agreement. We will soon release a copy of the agreement to the public to prove a point — that we are not just raising the alarm.

    “I think the right thing is for the President to stick to the agreement. Some of us were almost stoned for sacrificing the interest of the North for the Southsouth.

    “We hope the President will own up to this crucial agreement. It is a welcome development that the Chairman of the Northern States Governors Forum was the one who raised it.”

    It was gathered that the Presidency was rattled by the revelation, forcing strategists to spend hours planning a response which did not come at press time last night.

    A source said: “The comments of the Niger State Governor were initially greeted with disbelieve by the President’s strategists, who worked through the night on the appropriate response.

    “The issues highlighted by the strategists were how to manage why the President went into the agreement; plausible reasons why the pact might not subsist, and tackling the bearer of the message, Governor Babangida Aliyu.

    “They considered the governor’s disclosure as a serious challenge.”

    Niger Delta activist and human rights campaigner, Annkio Briggs, has described as sheer blackmail the allegation that President Jonathan signed an agreement to serve only for a term in the run-up to the 2011 Presidential election.

    Speaking with our correspondent on the telephone, Briggs said if it turned out that there was such an agreement, it must have been obtained under duress since there was nothing that compels Jonathan to serve for four years.

    Arguing that the Northern governors appear bent on using the controversial agreement to blackmail Jonathan against running in 2015, should he decide to do so, Briggs insists that the agreement remains null and void since it was not signed on behalf of Nigerians.

    She said: “If that statement is true, then you can see that Nigeria is in trouble if a set of people can sit and decide how politics should be played. Does it mean that the power of choice no longer resides with voters? In my opinion, it is totally wrong if Jonathan has to be put in a position in which he has to sign under duress that he would serve for a term. If such a document exists, then it must have been obtained under duress.

    “In the first place, Jonathan has no right to sign that document on behalf of Nigerians and, particularly, on behalf of the Southsouth people. He has a right to run for a second term of four years just like any other Nigerian if he so wishes. If Babangida Aliyu wants to run for President, he should do so without resorting to blackmailing Jonathan. That also applies to any Northern governor who plans to run. They should stop blackmailing Jonathan.

    “If he signed such a document, that means he has signed it under duress and therefore the document is a nullity. If Jonathan decides to run in 2015, it should be based on his performance in office. We cannot run away from the fact that the Jonathan Presidency has been under serious threat by those who vowed to make the country ungovernable. And so, that kind of document is not acceptable to us.”

  • ACN backs Oyo’s call on EFCC to release seized funds

    The Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN) in Oyo State has backed the state executive council’s call on the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) to release funds and property seized from two former governors to the state.

    ACN said the funds would enable the state government execute more capital projects.

    In a statement by its Publicity Secretary, Mr. Dauda Kolawole, ACN condemned a newspaper publication in which Governor Abiola Ajimobi was accused of attacking Senator Rashidi Ladoja.

    It said: “The state executive council, which made that resolution, has two Accord commissioners, one Action Alliance commissioner, ACN commissioners, former Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) members and many technocrats. So it could not have been targeted at any individual, but the repatriation of Oyo’s money, so that it can be expended on the people of the state, where the money was allegedly taken from in the first instance.”

    On the allegation that the removal of an Accord member, the caretaker chairman of Ona-Ara Local Government, was political, ACN said no governor in the history of Oyo State has demonstrated Ajimobi’s political tolerance.

    It said many officials of the Ajimobi administration were from the opposition.

    ACN said: “The governor has done what every noble gentleman will do by giving Ladoja unprecedented space in his government. Ladoja would never have done what Ajimobi did if their roles were reversed. This man deserves kudos and not invectives from Accord men, whose master is known for political intolerance.

    “When Ladoja was governor during the 2003 local government election, Dr. Joshua Akintaro of the Alliance for Democracy (AD) won the chairmanship seat in Ibarapa East local government, despite the political fraud perpetrated by the PDP government.

    “Akintaro was not sworn in even after the election tribunal and the Appeal Court affirmed his election. Akintaro was not sworn in until Governor Adebayo Alao-Akala assumed office.

    “The intolerance of the Ladoja administration for the opposition was demonstrated in Ibadan North West, when Bashorun Bosun Ajuwon of the AD won the council’s chairmanship seat. Ajuwon was denied of the position.”

    On the demolition of illegal structures in Ibadan, ACN said Ladoja and his loyalists lack the moral right to condemn the state government’s action.

    It said: “We have challenged Ladoja in an earlier statement to deny that he demolished a church and a construction company’s office on Ring Road, shops at Orita Aperin-Elekuro, Orita Aperin-Adesola, Orita Aperin-Adekile and Academy Under-Bridge roads.

    “What this means is that he desired Ajimobi’s highly applauded urban renewal effort, but lacked the political will to implement it. Worse still, we do not have it on record that Ladoja ever built a single shop for market women and Ajimobi is building thousands of such at the moment.”

  • Reps to release result of public sessions today

    The House of Representatives will today release the collated results of the People’s Public Sessions on the review of the 1999 Constitution, which it conducted in the 360 federal constituencies.

    A statement by the Clerk, Committee on Constitution Review, Chinedu Akubueze, said the presentation of the collated results would be witnessed by a cross section of the society.

    He said: “Representatives of the labour, trade unions, students, women, professional groups and other stakeholders have been invited to the programme. They are the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC), Trade Union Congress (TUC), Nigeria Bar Association (NBA), Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU), Nigeria Union of Journalists (NUJ), National Association of Nigerian Students (NANS), National Council for Women Societies (NCWS), National Union of Local Government Employees (NULGE), National Youth Council, Nigeria Union of Teachers (NUT) and representatives of civil society organisations.”

    According to him, the event, which will be held in the House of Representatives, will feature the unveiling of the voting pattern on the issues itemised in the template for voting during the sessions, as decided by Nigerians at each federal constituency.

    Akabueze said the ceremony, which will be presided over by Speaker Aminu Waziri Tambuwal, will also have in attendance the Chairman of the Nigeria Governors’ Forum and Chairman, Conference of Speakers of State Legislatures.

  • It’s not enough to release Al-Mizan editors

    It’s not enough to release Al-Mizan editors

    On Tuesday, the State Security Service (SSS) released from detention Mallam Mohammed Awwal, editor of a Kaduna-based Hausa newspaper, Al-Mizan, and his reporter, Mallam Aliyu Saleh, after about 10 days in detention. At the time of their arrest on December 23, 2012, no one knew which agency of government was involved in the dawn raid that saw the journalists and their families manhandled. In fact, at a point, some observers were unsure whether agents of a civilized government could employ such tactics in a country governed by laws. It had to be some criminal organisations, they feared. Some days later, it turned out surprisingly that the culprit was in fact the rather upper crust SSS. But to compound its unconstitutional act, the agency even kept the editors longer than the limit prescribed by law. The arrest of the editors was believed to be in connection with the current edition of the paper which contains a story on the alleged atrocities perpetrated by men of the Military Joint Task Force (JTF) in Potiskum against 84 persons said to have been abducted and whisked away to unknown destinations.

    A chafing Hardball had argued three days after the arrest of the editors that the method employed was gangsterish, and that it would be insufficient to merely release the editors later without the government investigating whether the law was not broken in the attempt by whoever was involved to uphold the law. The column feared rogue elements could be at work. Said he on December 26: “Whatever the merit of the case against the editors, the methods employed in arresting them are evidently unlawful and showed how clearly law and order can no longer be guaranteed in the country. Even for the most inciting and mendacious media reports, there are established modalities for tackling them and dealing with media professionals who break the law. With the country swamped by robbers, kidnappers, impersonators, and security agents who have embraced extra-judicial killing, it is a disservice to the government and people of Nigeria for any law enforcement body to adopt the style of the underworld. The Kaduna abductions indicate the gradual and steady decline of the country into jungle justice.

    “If any security agency is complicit in the unlawful arrest of the editors, it is not enough that the editors should be released and the proper procedures followed in bringing them to justice for any journalistic wrongdoing; the abduction itself must also be investigated and all the law enforcement agents involved in the unlawful act punished. The danger in glossing over this obnoxious method of law enforcement is that the gangland style of arresting citizens will be successfully imitated by criminal organisations, as in fact is already being done, encouraged by the culture of impunity that is pervasive among security agencies.”

    Now that it is clear the SSS, which Hardball had once singled out for praise in this space, was behind the abductions, the government, if it knows its responsibility, must require explanations from the agency. A country governed by laws must never submit to official gangsterism. There is no place for such methods in modern Nigeria. The manner of the arrests was brutal, considering that it had to do with journalists alleged to have published inaccurate information, and the detention of the editors beyond the permissible limit of 48 hours was itself unlawful and indefensible.

    Though they are now free, and no charge has been brought against them, neither Al-Mizan nor the Nigerian Union of Journalists (NUJ) should treat the matter with kid gloves. The SSS and the federal government should be taken to court and made to explain why they willfully broke the law, and to show cause why they should not be punished for dragging the country back into the military era. Nigeria would be reduced to a jungle when agencies of government deliberately subvert the constitution and make nonsense of our laws. It is either we are governed by laws or we are not; there is no space in-between.

  • Kidnapped Frenchman’s wife calls for his release

    The wife of a kidnapped Frenchman in Nigeria yesterday raised the alarm over his health.

    Mrs Anne-Marie Collomp said her husband, 61-year-old Francis Collomp, who was kidnapped in Katsina last week, needs to take his medicine daily.

    “My husband underwent a triple bypass 12 years ago. He needs to take his medication everyday. This is what worries me the most,” she said.

    The agitated wife said she believed her husband was not the target of the abductors who she said intended to abduct two other Frenchmen.

    Mrs. Collomp told the French News Agency (AFP) that her husband was not supposed to work in December.

    She said: “But since we have no children, he went (there) to replace two Frenchmen; fathers who were due to go home for the Christmas and New Year holidays.

    “When the kidnappers went inside (the home), they asked: ‘Where are the Frenchmen?’ They only found my husband.”

    Speaking from the couple’s home on the French overseas department of Réunion, Mrs Collomp said her husband “loved Africa and his work”.

    She explained that her husband often went to work in Nigeria for four to six months.

    Mrs Collomp added: “I am very anxious. I don’t listen to the radio any more nor watch the television. I don’t know what state he is in.

    “The Quai d’Orsay (French Foreign Ministry) tells us they’re working on it, that we shouldn’t worry. But we live far away and we still have no news.”

    On Sunday, Ansaru, a radical group with suspected links to Al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (Aqim), claimed responsibility for the kidnap.

    It cited France’s support for a military intervention to drive out Islamists in northern Mali as a reason.

  • NSC to release Eagles’ funds soon — Minister

    NSC to release Eagles’ funds soon — Minister

    Sports Minister, Malam Bolaji Abdullahi, on Thursday assured that the funds for the Super Eagles’ preparation and participation at the 2013 Africa Cup of Nations (AFCON) would be released this week.

    The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) recalls that President Goodluck Jonathan had given an express approval to the N1.4 billion budget proposed by the Nigeria Football Federation for the Super Eagles’ participation in the 2013 AFCON beginning in South Africa on Jan. 19, 2013.

    Abdullahi told NAN during an interview in Abuja there was the need to avoid the fire-brigade approach that had characterised Nigeria’s participation in past championships.

    According to the minister, the NSC had gotten the approval for the release of the money and would not want to delay in releasing it to the Nigeria Football Federation (NFF).

    “We have gotten the approval; I just spoke with the Director of Finance for confirmation.

    “The NFA will get the money this week, to enable them get things in proper shape for the Super Eagles’ preparation and participation in the tournament.

    “I had a meeting with the NFF leadership and they raised the issue with me,” Abdullahi explained.

    The minister also said that the Commission had the mandate to support the football house in pursuit of its goals provided it was in the national interest.

    He added that the support would be extended to Aminu Maigari, the NFF Chairman, who is vying for a seat in the executive committee of the Confederation of African Football (CAF).

    “It will be a thing of pride to know that the Chairman of the NFF is going to represent Nigeria at that level.

    “So, it lies on us to give him the necessary support he needs to succeed,” the minister stressed.

    Maigari is among the three candidates from West Africa’s Zone B contesting the position vacated by Amos Adamu following his involvement in a bribery scandal.

    Republic of Benin’s Anjorin Moucharafou and Hima Souley from Niger Republic are the other two candidates vying for the seat.