Why gridlock persists on Lagos-Ibadan highway – FRSC (DailyTrust)
As the Lagos-Ibadan expressway gridlock worsens with motorists spending close to four hours within Lagos and Mowe in Ogun State, the Federal Road Safety Corps (FRSC) has blamed impatience on the part of motorists on the perennial gridlock. FRSC Zonal Commanding Officer representing Lagos and Ogun State, Asst Corps Marshal Samuel Obayemi however said the corps had deployed ample personnel for the yuletide patrol.
He said with the ongoing construction work on the expressway, sections of the road had been closed to traffic but the gridlock has been worsened by failure to comply to road signs and instructions by motorists. Read more
Waterways security: Sanwo-Olu commissions new police command at Ilashe (Nation)
Lagos State Governor, Babajide Sanwo-Olu on Sunday commissioned a new Police Command at Ilashe, a riverine community in Amuwo Odofin to boost security across border towns.
The Command will serve as the operational headquarters of the recently created Area “L”, which provides security services to all riverine communities in Oriade Local Council Development Area (LCDA).
The entire structure, equipped with state-of-the-art facilities, was built and donated to the police by the state government and construction was handled and supervised by the State’s Ministry of Works and Infrastructure. Read more
Sanwo-Olu promises to clear pensioner’s backlog (Nation)
The Lagos State Governor, Babajide Sanwo-Olu, has said all backlog owed to pensioners in the state will be cleared.
He spoke in Ikeja Lagos State, during the Lagos Pensioners Reunion, organized by the Civil Service Pensions Office, Lagos State Ministry of Establishments, Training and Pensions.
Represented by the Commissioner, Ministry of Establishments, Training and Pensions, Mrs Ajibola Ponnle, Samwo-Olu, said that the administration has the welfare of both current and retired staffs as its priority. Read more
19,273 teachers fail qualification exam (DailyTrust)
A Nigerian teacher Teachers Registration Council of Nigeria (TRCN) says 19,273 candidates failed the Professional Qualification Examination (PQE) it organised to ascertain numbers of qualified teachers in the country. The council’s registrar Segun Ajiboye, who disclosed this while speaking with newsmen in Ibadan on Sunday, said 53,674 candidates however passed the screening. The breakdown of the results signed by the registrar revealed that 72,947 wrote the examinations in various centres across the country out of which 19,273 failed. Read more
‘How education can lift poverty in Lagos’ (Nation)
A nongovernmental organization, Connected Development, CODE, has encouraged the Lagos state government to commit more resources into educating youths in order to halt poverty across Nigeria.
CODE, which runs with the objectives of increasing youth inclusiveness in governance as well as holding government accountable, recently presented a robust budget fact-sheet to Mr. Tokunbo Wahab, the Special Adviser to Lagos Governor Babajide Sanwo-Olu on how the state can maximize key projects to engage youths economically.
In the courtesy visit to the governor’s aide, Mike Azu-Monye, the organization’s Program’s Manager stressed on their aim to provide accurate data to the government so that projects like CODELagos – to teach young people on digital skills – and Ready-set Work (RSW) initiative for final year students would become more efficient. Read more
Father sets ablaze son, daughter for alleged witchcraft (DailyTrust)
The 5-year-old girl and her 11-year-old brother bandaged up in hospital after their father set them ablaze on allegations of witchcraft The Plateau State Police Command has confirmed one Nyam Choji of Shen village of Jos South Local Government Area of the state, set ablaze his son and daughter over alleged witchcraft. The acting Police Public Relation Officer of the Command (PPRO), ASP Uba Gabriel who confirmed the incident to Daily Trust on Sunday gave the names of the victim as Godsgift Nyam (11) and Mary Nyam (5). He said the incident occurred on Friday. “From the information we got, the father of the victims and children of Mai Anguwa of the area were the perpetrators of the act. They are now at large but we have mounted 24 hours surveillance in the area to track them down, ” he said. According to the police, the victims were admitted to Plateau Specialist Hospital Jos. Read more
Tony Tetuila Sues Wizkid For ₦30 Million Over Copyright Infringement (Guardian)
Nigerian Afrobeats artiste Ayodeji Ibrahim Balogun better known as Wizkid has been slammed with a ₦30 million lawsuit over copyright infringement by music veteran Tony Tetuila.
Tetuila whose real name is Anthony Olarenwaju Awotoye revealed in an Instagram post that he and Ghanaian singer Tic are suing Wizkid and DJ Tunez for violation of intellectual property: Read more
West African nations rename common currency, sever its links to France (Guardian)
Eight West African countries Saturday agreed to change the name of their common currency to Eco and severed the CFA franc’s links to former colonial ruler France.
The CFA franc was initially pegged to the French franc and has been linked to the euro for about two decades.
Benin, Burkina Faso, Guinea-Bissau, Ivory Coast, Mali, Niger, Senegal and Togo currently use the currency. All the countries are former French colonies with the exception of Guinea-Bissau. Read more
‘Diabetes, cancer no longer associated with only the rich’ (DailyTrust)
A Professor of Nutritional Biochemistry, Omobola Abioye Ogundahunsi says diabetes, cancer and other non – communicable diseases (NCDs) are “increasingly being recognized as major health issues of epidemic proportions in poor- and low- income communities.” This, Ogundahunsi noted, negated the previous stance when those chronic diseases were mostly associated with affluence.
She spoke while delivering the 93rd inaugural lecture of Olabisi Onabanjo University, (OOU), Ago – Iwoye, Ogun State. The lecture was titled “To Eat, Or Not To Eat? That Is The Question.” Read more
Croatia votes in a three-horse presidential race (Guardian)
Croatia went to the polls for a presidential vote on Sunday that could weaken the ruling conservatives just as the country takes the helm of the European Union’s rotating presidency.
The pre-Christmas election, likely to be decided in a January 5 run-off, has evolved into a tight race between conservative incumbent Kolinda Grabar-Kitarovic and front-running rivals on the right and the left.
Voters braved heavy rain in the capital Zagreb to reach polling stations that opened at 7:00 am (0600 GMT), with voting set finish 12 hours later. Read more
Malian youngster Diarra set to join NPFL (DailyTrust)
Malian forward Moussa Diarra A 21-year-old Malian, Moussa Diarra, who currently plays for Real De Bamako is set to join one of the leading clubs in the Nigerian Professional Football League. The player’s agent and Chief Executive Officer of Galaxy Sports Development based in China, Mr Austin Akpehe told Daily Trust that the deal with the undisclosed Nigerian club would be sealed before the end of December.
He said the potent centre forward with the height of 1.98m joined his organisation this year when he took a trip to Mali to look out for talented football players there. Read more
Ancelotti wants Everton to aim for Europe (Guardian)
Carlo Ancelotti has set his sights on taking Everton back into European competition after the Italian was appointed manager of “one of the greatest clubs in England”.
Saturday saw the Merseyside team announce that Ancelotti had become their new permanent manager on a four-and-a-half year contract.
The 60-year-old then watched from the stands at Goodison Park as Everton played out a goalless draw with Arsenal, who have appointed former Toffees favourite Mikel Arteta as their new manager. Read more
Nigeria loses bid to host U-20 Women’s World cup (Nation)
Nigeria have lost their bid to become the first African country to host a global women’s tournament after FIFA chose Costa Rica and Panama as joint hosts for next year’s Under-20 World Cup.
A Fifa inspection team visited proposed facilities in the West African country last year amidst strong criticism from a section of the country’s socio-political commentators and analysts.
Despite the criticism, the project received strong backing from the Nigerian government. Read more
Bayern make Flick head coach until ‘at least’ end of season (Guardian)
Bayern Munich on Sunday confirmed interim boss Hansi Flick will remain head coach “until at least” the end of the season after winning eight of his 10 games in charge.
“FC Bayern and Hansi Flick have agreed” that he “will remain head coach… at least until the end of the current season,” the club said in a statement.
“A continuation of Hansi Flick as head coach beyond that is a conceivable option for FC Bayern.”The 54-year-old, an assistant with the Germany team that won the 2014 World Cup, took charge after Niko Kovac was sacked in early November. Read more
Troost-Ekong shines as Udinese beat Cagliari (Nation)
Nigeria defender William Troost-Ekong made key impacts to help Udinese end a five-game winless run as they beat Cagliari 2-1 on Saturday, Italy Serie A game.
Troost-Ekong and Cote d ‘Ivoire Seko Fofana delivered impressive performances as Udinese secured a victory after a five-game winless run, including last weekend’s defeat to Juventus. The African stars were at their best to ensure Luca Gotti’s men ended their miserable run of results at Dacia Arena.
Troost-Ekong, who made his 15th league appearance in the encounter, had a 73% successful pass rate. Fofana, meanwhile, was afforded his eighth start of the season and set up Rodrigo De Paul for the opening goal of the match in the 39th minute. Read more
Ilicic nets twice as Atalanta destroy AC Milan (Guardian)
Slovenia international Josip Ilicic scored two terrific goals as Atalanta demolished AC Milan 5-0 in Serie A on Sunday to climb up to fifth.
Atalanta captain Papu Gomez fired the hosts ahead on 10 minutes when he gathered the ball on the left wing and drifted into the area before blasting beyond Gianluigi Donnarumma.
Mario Pasalic, on loan from Chelsea, added a second on the hour in Bergamo when he flicked in a flashing drive from Robin Gosens. Read more
Fall: BAL will showcase Africa’s rich basketball heritage (Nation)
President of Basketball Africa League (BAL), Amadou Fall has said that the logo of the league reflects the exciting and dynamic nature of basketball in the World, while assuring that the league will showcase Africa’s rich basketball heritage.
The logo was unveiled on Thursday in Kigali, Rwanda before the BAL qualifying games at the Kigali Arena, which will see three more teams joining nine others that will battle for honours in the first edition of the competition which begin in March next year.
Fall said: “This unique logo reflects the exciting and dynamic nature of our game, symbolizes the richness, diversity and authenticity of our continent, and represents African basketball on the world stage. Read more
El-Rufai to renovate Ahmadu Bello Stadium – Dare (DailyTrust)
The Minister of Youths and Sports Development, Sunday Dare has revealed that the Executive Governor of Kaduna State, Mallam Nasir El-Rufai has accepted to renovate the Ahmadu Bello Stadium in Kaduna. Dare who made this known while speaking with journalists in Abuja on Thursday said the Adoption Campaign initiative of the Ministry of Youth and Sports Development was introduced for public and private individuals to develop the sports sector and invariably, the youth in Nigeria. Dare further expressed his appreciation to El-Rufai for making a commitment to fix several important areas of the federal government owned 20,500 sitting capacity stadium. Read more
Gotv Boxing Night: Zlatan, Mayorkun, others to perform (Nation)
Fuji star, Sule Alao Adekunle, better known as Malaika, has been added to the list of music heavyweights billed to perform at GOtv Boxing Music Festival scheduled to hold on 28 December at the Tafawa Balewa Square, Lagos.
Malaika, according to Flykite Productions, organisers of the show, will join Zlatan, Mayorkun, Oritsefemi and other artistes to perform at the show.
“I’m calling on all Fuji fans to come to Tafawa Balewa Square on the day of the event as it would be a show to remember. My band is ready and raring to go,” said Malaika. Read more