Enforcement on Okada ban: Operators storm Sanwo-Olu’s office in protest (Vanguard)
Ahead of the commencement of total enforcement ban on activities of commercial motorcyclists, popularly called, “Okada” and tricyclists, “Keke NAPEP” commencing, February 1st, some operators, on Friday, led a peaceful protest to the state government in Alausa, seeking a rethink on the ban.
Recall that the state government had last Monday, announced plans to commence total enforcement of Reform Traffic Law of 2018 on activities of motorcyclists, popularly called “Okada” and tricycles, called “Keke Marwa” on restricted routes and bridges across 15 Local Government Areas of the state.
The operators, numbering hundreds, who are Gokada, “Oride, and “Max” commercial motorcycles, stormed Alausa about 10 am, and headed straight to the State House of Assembly, accusing the state government of being insensitive to their plight. Read more
Two kids rescued as fire guts another Lagos building (Guardian)
A building at Ile-Ile bus-stop, Ketu, Lagos State went up in flames yesterday evening. The fire started at about 5:00 p.m. at No. 12, Ajayi Street, off Alhaji Lawal Street, Ile-Ile, in Agboyi–Ketu Local Council Development Area (LCDA) of Lagos.
The cause of the fire could not be ascertained as of the time of filing this report though it was gathered that two children were initially trapped in the two-storey building before they were rescued by residents and emergency responders and evacuated to the hospital for treatment.
According to residents, the caused of the fire is a result of a gas cylinder that exploded. The rescued victims sustained some injuries from the explosion. Read more
Jubilation as NYSC members receive first N33,000 allowance (Punch)
Some corps members of the National Youth Service Corps serving in Enugu State have expressed joy over the payment of N33,000 increased allowance by the federal government.The corps members, who have been expectant, expressed shock when they started receiving the credit alert at 2 am on Friday, noting that the payment was a New Year package from the federal government.
One of the corps members, Joseph Odichi, said it was like a dream when he got a call at 3:00a.m. from a fellow corps member about the payment.
“This is another Good Friday for us,” he enthused. Read more
Digital companies, liable to tax under new Finance Act — Osinbajo (Vanguard)
Vice President, Yemi Osinbajo says multinational digital companies operating abroad with significant economic presence in Nigeria will be subjected to taxation under the new Finance Act.
Osinbajo disclosed this on Friday in Abuja during a lecture titled: “Economic Dimension of National Security; the Nigerian Experience”, organised for participants of Course 28 of the National Defence College.
According to him, before the Finance Act, only companies that have physical presence or fixed address in Nigeria are being taxed. Read more
Osinbajo, LCCI discuss economy, Apapa gridlock, others (Guardian)
The Vice-President, Prof. Yemi Osinbajo, on Friday received a delegation of the Lagos Chamber of Commerce and Industry (LCCI), led by its President, Mrs Toki Mabogunje at the Presidential Villa in Abuja.
Mabogunje, who spoke with State House correspondents after the meeting, said the delegation and the vice-president discussed issues bordering on the economy, infrastructure deficit and the perennial gridlock in Apapa, Lagos.
She said there was a need for the government to strengthen Public-Private Partnership initiatives in infrastructure development. Read more
Lassa fever kills two including pregnant woman in Enugu (DailyTrust)
Two persons, including a pregnant woman have died from Lassa fever in Enugu state. The pregnant woman was said to have reported very late in the hospital. Six suspected cases were reported in the state out of which three were confirmed. Daily Trust learnt that the third victim, a 24-year-old female youth corps member who reportedly returned from Benue state due to ill health is currently responding to treatment. Read more
Varsities face strike as govt pays lecturers on IPPIS (Nation)
Only varsity teachers captured on the Integrated Personnel Payroll Information System (IPPIS) will get alert for their January salary, the Federal Government said on Thursday.
The IPPIS has been a subject of controversy between teachers’ umbrella body – Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) – and the Federal Government.
The payment of tertiary institutions’ lecturers will begin today, it was learnt yesterday. Read more
18-year-old man allegedly rapes his 70-year-old grandmother in Plateau (DailyTrust)
The police in Plateau on Friday confirmed the arrest of an 18-year-old man, Marvellous Luka, who allegedly raped his 70-year-old grandmother. The police officer in charge of the case, Insp. Mulleng Alex, said that Luka, lives in Dangu-gu Village, Ampang West District of Mangu, Plateau. Alex said that the suspect has been charged and would soon appear before a High Court in Pankshin, Plateau for trial. Read more
WhatsApp to stop working on millions of phones tomorrow (Metro)
WhatsApp is hours away from rendering a lot of people’s phones more-or-less obsolete. The Facebook-owned app stopped supporting a number of devices on December 31 and on February 1 it will declare lots more iOS and Android handsets out of date. If your device is due for the scrapheap, you will be longer able to open up WhatsApp and will instead be shown a depressing message letting you know it’s time for an upgrade. Last year, victims of the most recent WhatsApp cull were shown a dark screen of death and the words: ‘You can no longer use WhatsApp on this phone, because WhatsApp no longer supports it.’ Read more
Family sue after being kicked off flight ‘for body odour’ (BBC)
A Michigan family removed from an American Airlines flight in Miami when staff claimed they had body odour are suing the airline.
Yehuda Yosef Adler, his wife Jennie and their young daughter were removed from the flight to Detroit last January.
They claim staff made comments about their Orthodox Jewish faith.
American Airlines said the decision to remove the family was not based on religion. They claim customers complained about Mr Adler’s odour. Read more
Klopp plays down record-breaking Reds as title looms near (Guardian)
Jurgen Klopp steadfastly refuses to allow Liverpool’s long-awaited Premier League title celebrations to start, but the opening month of 2020 has underlined the Reds’ mastery over their rivals.
Reds boss Klopp could see his side move an astonishing 22 points clear of their closest rivals and defending champions Manchester City on the opening weekend of February, should they beat Southampton and Pep Guardiola’s team lose at Tottenham 24 hours later.
But the German played down the mounting tally of statistical landmarks after his side became the quickest ever to rack up 70 points in a season following their comfortable 2-0 win at West Ham on Wednesday. Read more
Nathan Bishop joins Manchester United on transfer deadline day (Metro)
Manchester United have completed the signing of Nathan Bishop from Southend United, the club have confirmed. Bishop becomes United’s second signing of the January window and is likely to bring to a close the club’s transfer business this month. The 20-year-old signs a two-and-a-half-year contract and said becoming a Red Devil was a dream come true. ‘The opportunity to join Manchester United is a dream come true,’ Bishop told the club website. Read more
Barcelona sign Francisco Trincao from Braga (Punch)
Barcelona has signed promising Portuguese forward Francisco Trincao from Braga in a deal worth 31 million euros, the La Liga club announced on Friday.
In a statement, the Spanish champions said that Trincao, 20, will join Barca on July 1 and has signed a five-year contract, which includes a buy-out clause of 500 million euros.
“FC Barcelona and SC Braga have reached an agreement for the transfer of the player Francisco Trincao,” the statement read. Read more
Inter’s Premier League new boys settling nerves before derby showdown (Guardian)
Antonio Conte’s new Premier League recruits have been settling nerves at title-chasing Inter Milan who travels to Udinese on Sunday looking to end a three-match Serie A winless run before their derby clash against city rivals AC Milan.
Inter have brought in Christian Eriksen, Ashley Young and Victor Moses to keep the pressure on leaders Juventus as the Chinese-owned club target a first Scudetto since 2010.
The pace of the season had taken its toll, however, and Inter are on a run of three consecutive 1-1 league draws against Atalanta, Lecce and Cagliari. Read more
The 20 biggest January window signings in football (Vanguard)
The January transfer market is relatively quiet in comparison with the summer’s, but that hasn’t stopped clubs from splashing the cash when they feel the need to.
Here is a list of the biggest January market signings in football history;
20) Krysztof Piatek (Genoa to Milan – £30.9m)
Thirteen goals in his first nine games of the 18/19 season was enough for Krysztof Piatek to spark something of a striker merry-go-round across Europe. His form caught the attention of Serie A rivals Milan, who cut Gonzalo Higuain’s loan short to accommodate him. Chelsea swooped for the Argentine, with Alvaro Morata heading to Spain. And it all started with Piatek, who promptly flopped. A year later, he is on his way to Hertha Berlin for £23.5m. Read more
Australian Open: Dominic Thiem beats Alexander Zverev to reach final (BBC)
Dominic Thiem will meet defending champion Novak Djokovic in Sunday’s Australian Open final after digging deep to beat Alexander Zverev.
Thiem, 26, won 3-6 6-4 7-6 (7-3) 7-6 (7-4) in a match briefly interrupted by rain and a lighting failure.
The Austrian fifth seed said “it was an unreal match” and he will now look to win his first Grand Slam, after losing the past two French Open finals. Read more
Learning from Lewandowski is a ‘dream come true’ for Bayern’s Singh (Vanguard)
With Robert Lewandowski on hand to improve his shooting technique and Philippe Coutinho helping perfect his passing, New Zealand’s Sarpreet Singh is relishing learning from some of the world’s best at Bayern Munich since he made history on his Bundesliga debut.
The 20-year-old New Zealander, whose parents hail from a village in the Punjab region, became the first player of Indian descent in the Bundesliga with a second-half cameo in Bayern’s 6-1 thumping of Werder Bremen last month.
Having also been an unused sub in the Champions League home win over Tottenham a few days earlier, it was his first appearance at Munich’s imposing Allianz Arena stadium. Read more
Arsene Wenger launches FIFA talent development programme (Punch)
FIFA has announced the launch of what it has called a “groundbreaking talent development programme” with the aim of reducing the gap between the world’s leading football nations and the rest.
The programme was launched by former Arsenal manager Arsene Wenger, who is now working as the head of global development at world football’s governing body.
“We are launching the FIFA Talent Development Programme to ensure that every talent gets a chance,” said Wenger in Doha, where he has been attending a five-day FIFA-run workshop. Read more
Haaland: Dortmund paid father 10m euros to secure signing (Vanguard)
Borussia Dortmund’s signing of Erling Haaland is set to cost them a lot more than the 20 million euros stated by the club.
Dortmund announced the signing of the teenager from Red Bull Salzburg with the player due to join up with his new teammates on January 3 ahead of their winter training camp in Marbella.
In addition to his 20 million euro transfer fee, Haaland will earn over eight million euros a season during the length of his four-and-a-half-year contract. This fee plus his wages will end up costing the club 56 million euros.
However, according to La Gazzetta dello Sport and Tuttosport, his agent Mino Raiola will earn a commission of about 15 million euros for his role in the transfer. Read more