I thought I was dead when I felt the bullet in my stomach, says shot journalist (Guardian)
One of three journalists, who were shot on Tuesday at the flag-off campaign of Babajide Sanwo-Olu, the governorship candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC) in Lagos State, Temitope Ogunbanke, a News Telegraph correspondent, has recounted his experience. Ogunbanke said he was hit on his neck and stomach by the bullet. According to him, the bullet touched his stomach and fled past him, saying he felt the touch of the bullet on his stomach while it pierced his face. He said: “I thank God I am alive. When I felt the bullet in my stomach, I thought I was dead. It was when I opened my eyes and touched the stomach and saw no blood that I knew I was still alive, but I was scratched by the bullet on my face.” Read more
INEC seeks new security approach to 2019 polls (Punch)
The Independent National Electoral Commission on Wednesday called for a different approach to the deployment of security officials during the forthcoming general elections. The chairman of INEC, Prof Mahmood Yakubu, stated this in Abuja during the commission’s meeting on the Inter-agency Consultative Committee on Election Security. According to him, the meeting was convened primarily to update members of ICCES on the body’s preparations for the general elections. The meeting was attended by a representative of the National Security Adviser and heads of the various national security agencies. Read more
Opposition leader named DR Congo president (BBC)
Opposition candidate Felix Tshisekedi has won the Democratic Republic of Congo’s tightly contested presidential vote, the electoral commission says. Provisional results put him ahead of another opposition candidate, Martin Fayulu, and the ruling coalition’s Emmanuel Shadary. If confirmed, Mr Tshisekedi will be the first opposition challenger to win since the DR Congo gained independence. Current President Joseph Kabila is stepping down after 18 years in office. He had promised DR Congo’s first orderly transfer of power since the country’s independence from Belgium in 1960. Read more
Trump walks out of shutdown talks with a ‘bye-bye’ (BBC)
President Donald Trump has walked out of a meeting with Democratic leaders as negotiations broke down on the 19th day of a US government shutdown. The Republican president ended talks after Nancy Pelosi and Chuck Schumer stuck by their refusal to fund his planned US-Mexico border wall. Mr Trump called his meeting with the pair “a total waste of time”. Some 800,000 federal workers will go without pay this week for the first time since the shutdown began. The president tweeted afterwards that he had said “bye-bye” to the top Democrats. Read more
Shark attacks woman, child at tourist site (Punch)
A woman and a child were bitten by a shark in the popular Whitsunday Islands near Australia’s Great Barrier Reef on Thursday in the latest of a string of such attacks, reports and officials said. The Queensland state ambulance service said the pair were rushed to hospital with leg and foot wounds from the attack along a beach on Hamilton Island, but the injuries were not life-threatening. Local media said the victims were a woman and young child playing in the shallow waters of the island’s Catseye Beach. It was the latest in a series of shark attacks in waters around the Whitsunday islands, which had been considered safe for swimming. Read more
Rohr demands victory over Egypt on March 26 in Asaba (Guardian)
Super Eagles Technical Adviser, Gernot Rohr has said that his team would approach Nigeria’s forthcoming international friendly match against Egypt like a cup final game. Speaking yesterday during a telephone interview with Lagos based radio, Brila Sports, Rohr said the international friendly game would test his team’s preparedness for this year’s African Nations Cup to be hosted by the North Africans. The Pharaohs of Egypt, who are the new hosts for the 2019 Africa Cup of Nations after Cameroun was striped of the hosting right due to political unrest, will face the Super Eagles on March 26 at the Stephen Keshi Stadium in Asaba. And the German tactician said nothing but victory against Egypt would be a perfect result for him. Read more
Westerhof gives conditions for coaching (Nation)
Former Nigeria coach Clemens Westerhof says his age is no barrier to his desire to keep working in African football as he considers opportunities in Zimbabwe. The 78-year-old Dutchman coached Zimbabwe between 1998 and 2000 and worked in the Zimbabwean top flight at Dynanyoro in Harare. Westerhof, 78, masterminded Nigeria’s success in the 1990s, guiding them to the Nations Cup trophy in 1994, insisting that: “I will not go in front with football shoes on and kick balls left and right – no, no, no. But I will tell them how to do it. And I will choose those coaches to work with me, who must have the same idea as I have. The same feeling and passion for it that you will see.”
Ogu blasts Ighalo, Troost-Ekong, Ndidi’s omission from CAF best XI (Guardian)
Super Eagles’ midfielder, John Ogu has criticized the Confederation of Africa Football (CAF) for omitting Nigeria’s trio of Odion Ighalo, William Troost-Ekong and Wilfred Ndidi from 2018 Africa XI list. On Tuesday in Dakar, Senegal, CAF named Mohamed Salah, Sadio Mane, Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang, Kalidou Koulibaly, Thomas Partey, Naby Keita, Riyad Mahrez, Serge Aurier, Eric Bailly, Mehdi Benatia and Denis Onyango as the continent’s best 11. However, the Hapoel Beer Sheva star stated on his twitter page that CAF’s technical team were wrong to have snubbed Ndidi, Troost-Ekong and Ighalo from the squad, adding that the trio deserved to be on the list considering their performance for both club and country in 2018. Read more
Man City hit nine in Burton thrashing (BBC)
Irresistible Manchester City scored nine goals as they thrashed Burton Albion with an incredible display of attacking football in the first leg of their Carabao Cup semi-final at Etihad Stadium. Gabriel Jesus scored four, with Kevin de Bruyne, Oleksandr Zinchenko, Phil Foden, Kyle Walker and Riyad Mahrez also scoring against Nigel Clough’s beleaguered League One side. Headers from De Bruyne and Jesus made it 2-0, the Brazilian tapped in a third and Zinchenko’s curler put City four up. Jesus added two more headers, with Foden, Walker and Mahrez scoring further goals. Read more
Pastor nabbed for impregnating teenager in Ondo (Punch)
The Ondo State Command of the Nigeria Security and Civil Defence Corps, on Wednesday, said it had arrested a man, identified as Josiah Akinsuyi, for allegedly impregnating a 16-year-old girl (name withheld). According to the command, the suspect claimed to be a pastor of a Christ Apostolic Church in Akure, the state capital. The state Commandant, NSCDC, Mr Pedro Awili, while parading the suspect at the headquarters of the command in Akure, said the victim’s father reported the case after the teenager had confessed to him that she was four months pregnant. According to the NSCDC boss, a test conducted on the victim confirmed that she was indeed pregnant. Read more
Man stabs Ikeja Electric’s technician over disconnection (Punch)
A 22-year-old man, Oluwadamilare Temenu, has reportedly stabbed a technician with the Ikeja Electric, Oluwaseyi Amao, for disconnecting power supply to his residence at No. 13 Adesanya Street, in the Mafoluku area of Oshodi, Lagos State. PUNCH Metro gathered that Amao and his colleague, Yusuf Tunde, had acted on a disconnection order by the management of Ikeja Electric, an electricity distribution company, which had marked some flats in the building for disconnection over unpaid bills, when they were attacked. Amao, who said he gave the residents a month’s grace to pay their outstanding bills, added that he was surprised that one of them would attack him for disconnecting power supply to his apartment despite owing over N300,000. Read more