Lagos-Badagry road is a national disgrace (Punch)
There is no word to express the shame and psychological distress you suffer when seated with your Oyinbo friend in a tour bus passing through the West African intra-continental corridor to Lagos. The moment you clear the popular Seme border into Nigeria, the journey turns from a sweet sight-seeing cruise to a nerve-jarring nightmare, courtesy of the notoriously dreadful Lagos-Badagry express pain, sorry, “Expressway”.
For those who usually travel by road from Nigeria to neighbouring West African countries for business, leisure or education, it is always a hellish experience when the Nigerian side of the journey turns an otherwise relatively short trip into an overnight vigil. Read more
Two former NBA Ikeja chairmen, treasurer arraigned for N20m fraud (Punch)
Two former chairmen of the Ikeja branch of the Nigerian Bar Association, Adesina Ogunlana and Yinka Farounbi; and a former treasurer of the branch, Mrs Aderinola Kappo were on Wednesday arraigned for allegedly defrauding the association of N20m.
Farounbi served as NBA Ikeja Branch chairman between 2014 and 2016 with Kappo serving as treasurer, while Ogunlana served as chairman from 2016 to 2018. Read more
MainOne to Invest N25bn in Lagos broadband infrastructure (ThisDay)
MainOne has disclosed fresh plans to commit a whopping N25 billion to its Lagos broadband infrastructure project.
The initiative was designed to digitise Lagos, through the deployment of 2000 kilometre fibre optic broadband cable that would drive connectivity around all the Local Government Areas (LGAs) of the state. Read more
Strengthening Lagos criminal justice system (Punch)
Stakeholders in the justice sector have called for better enforcement of the provisions of the Administration of Criminal Justice Law in Lagos State. They equally advocated further amendments to the law in order to bring it abreast of the changing times.
They hold the unanimous view that Lagos must not rest on its oars in law reforms lest it loses its pacesetting position to other states. Read more
We’ve obeyed court order on Isheri-Olofin land dispute – Royal family (Punch)
The Oba of Isheri-Olofin in the Alimosho Local Government Area of Lagos State, Wahab Balogun, has denied the allegation of disobeying an Appeal Court order directing him and other parties to maintain the status quo pending the determination of the substantive suit in respect of a land tussle.
PUNCH Metro had reported that the Lagos State Special Task Force on Land Grabbers, in response to a petition by the Ishau Olorunfunmi family, had urged the parties to obey the ruling of the appellate court. Read more
120 passengers escape death as fire razes BRT on 3rd Mainland Bridge (Vanguard)
About 120 passengers, yesterday morning, escaped death when a Bus Rapid Transit, BRT, bus they were travelling in suddenly went up in flames on Third Mainland Bridge, Lagos. According to an eyewitness, the blue-coloured BRT bus, fully loaded with passengers, caught fire on motion at about 9a.m. on its way to mainland part of the state from Lagos Island. Read more
Nigeria still can’t produce pencil, despite Onu’s resolve (DaailyTrust)
The outgoing Minister of Science and Technology, Dr. Ogbonnaya Onu, made many promises on assumption of office in 2015.
The one that set the social media buzzing was his promise that Nigeria would start producing pencil in two years. He said Nigeria would start producing its own pencils in 2018 as part of a wholesale production sector revamp to be witnessed under President Muhammadu Buhari. Read more
Gov Fayemi emerges as new NGF Chairman, Tambuwal Deputy(Vanguard)
GOVERNOR Kayode Fayemi of Ekiti State has emerged as the new Chairman of Nigeria Governors’ Forum, NGF June 2019-2021.
Fayemi who was elected through consensus yesterday night , was nominated by Kaduna State Governor, Malam Nasir El-rufai and was seconded by Delta State to Governor, Ifeanyi Okowa. Read more
SEC Approves New Rules for Trading of Shares on the NSE (ThisDay)
The Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE) Wednesday said it has received the approval of the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) to some rules and amendments of existing ones aimed at making trading on the stock exchange more efficient.
In a notification placed on its website, the NSE listed the rules to include: Rules on securities transactions between dealing members of the NSE, which will become effective June 3; Rules for listing on the Growth Board of the NSE, to be effective June 17; Rules governing free float requirements for issuers listed on the NSE, effective June 3; Rules on price stabilisation of securities, effective July 15 and Rules on release calendar for regulatory announcements and filings of listed companies, effective September 2, 2019. Read more
Messaging app flaim generates over 100, 000 downloads in first week (Guardian)
Messaging app flaim has launched in Nigeria, generating over 100, 000 downloads in its first week. It is designed as a new messaging solution to replace the outdated and insecure apps on the market.
Launching with four leading carriers in Nigeria, flaim’s owners say it is set to become one of the fastest growing apps in the country and demonstrates the power of community through its programme, which provides users with data, airtime, phones and tablets, for sharing content with their communities. Read more
I will be president for all South Africans – Cyril Ramaphosa (Politicsweb)
Collectively all of us who are here have a mandate to build a nation founded on social justice, says President in NA
President Cyril Ramaphosa said he will be a president for all South Africans after he was elected president unopposed by the National Assembly on Wednesday.
Ramaphosa said he is “truly honoured and humbled to be elected to serve people of South Africa”. Read more
Nevada could become 15th state to buck Electoral College in favour of popular vote (CBSNews)
Nevada could become the 15th Democratic-leaning state to enact legislation that would allow its electoral votes to be allocated based on the winner of the national popular vote during a presidential election.
A proposal passed by the state Senate on Tuesday is now sitting in the desk of Democratic Gov. Steve Sisolak, who has not publicly indicated his position on the multi-state effort designed to make sure presidents are elected by the popular vote, rather than the tally of Electoral College votes. The Nevada Assembly approved the measure in April. Read more
Tokyo 2020 Olympics: Okagbare to run 100m, 200m sprints (Nation)
Nigeria’s female top sprinter, Blessing Okagbare-Ighotegunor is now the first Nigerian athlete to qualify for two events (100m and 200m) at the 2020 Olympic Games in Tokyo, Japan and the World Athletics Championship billed for Doha in September.
NationSport reports that the 30-year-old raced to a Season’s Best of 22.58s to finish 3rd in the women’s 200m at the IAAF World Challenge in Nanjing on Tuesday and book her place in the 200m event at Tokyo 2020. Read more
Qatar World Cup to be played with 32 teams -FIFA (Punch)
The 2022 World Cup in Qatar will be played with 32 teams after a proposed expansion of the tournament to 48 sides was scrapped, FIFA announced on Wednesday.
World football’s governing body said in a statement that “following a thorough and comprehensive consultation process with the involvement of all the relevant stakeholders, it was concluded that under the current circumstances such a proposal could not be made now”. Read more
NFF’s autonomy imminent as Senate passes bill abrogating NFA (ThisDay)
The law that changed the name of Nigeria Football Association (NFA) to Nigeria Football Federation (NFF) was one of the 11 bills passed yesterday by the upper chamber of the National Assembly.
Senator representing Kaduna Central, Shehu Sani was the one who moved for the consideration of the bill changing NFA to NFF in the Senate. Read more
How data (and some breathtaking soccer) brought liverpool to the cusp of glory (NYTimes)
Jürgen Klopp was in his third week as Liverpool’s manager, in November 2015, when the team’s director of research, Ian Graham, arrived at his office carrying computer printouts. Graham wanted to show Klopp, whom he hadn’t yet met, what his work could do. Then he hoped to persuade Klopp to actually use it.
Graham spread out his papers on the table in front of him. He began talking about a game that Borussia Dortmund, the German club that Klopp coached before joining Liverpool, had played the previous season. Read more
Maradona returns to Argentina for shoulder treatment (Vanguard)
Argentine football great Diego Maradona is to have treatment in Buenos Aires on an injured shoulder that forced him to miss a trip to the Cannes Film Festival where a documentary on his life was aired. Maradona The 58-year-old, currently the coach at Mexican team Dorados de Sinaloa, wrote a message on social media late on Tuesday saying: “I’m in Buenos Aires, on the way home.” Read more
18 teams jostle for 2019 Access Bank/UNICEF polo top honours (ThisDay)
Eighteen highly-motivated polo teams from across the country are gearing up for Africa’s premium polo extravaganza as the annual Access Bank/UNICEF Charity Shield Polo Tournament gallops-off at the Fifth Chukker Lawns of Kangimi Resort in Kaduna from Monday June 6 to Sunday to June 15, 2019.
Teams comprising regulars, arch rivals and a handful of ambitious new comers would jostle for honours in three broad cup categories with the high stake Charity Shield leading the pack that include the glittering Access Bank Cup, newly introduced Usman Dantata Cup, and crowded UNICEF Cup respectively. Read more
Imenger: Lobi Stars will struggle to replace Ogbeide (DailyTrust)
Barnabas Imenger Lobi Stars team manager Barnabas Imenger has stressed that it would be difficult to find a capable replacement for coach Solomon Ogbeide, who died on Monday afternoon after a brief illness.
Imenger said he has worked closely with coach Ogbeide since 2017, describing his professionalism as unmatched by any of their former coaches. Read more