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Former Chelsea ace defender, John Terry has revealed the Premier League club that can beat Pep Guardiola’s Manchester City and end their unbeaten run. The 37-year-old believes Jose Mourinho’s Chelsea is better than the present Pep Guardiola’s Man City. Terry said Mourinho‘s Chelsea sides in the 2004/05 and 2005/06 seasons would beat Pep Guardiola‘s current crop of Manchester City stars, despite their remarkable start to the current campaign winning 17 matches in 18 games. The England International, who was part of a Mourinho side that set the record points tally for a Premier League season (95 in 2004/05), said the team would have the edge over Guardiola’s men. When asked which other Premier League sides in history would compete with City, he told Sky Sports: “I would say 2004/05 or 2005/06, those two sides when Mourinho arrived at the club.” “We were never afraid to say: “They’ll have more possession than us,” but we were set, comfortable. “The full-backs ...

The Governor Delta State, Ifeanyi Okowa has stated that the recent visit of Governor Aminu Tambuwal of Sokoto State and his Rivers State counterpart, Nyesom Wike, to the state has no political undertone. Tambuwal and Wike were in Delta State last week for the inaugural youths empowerment entrepreneurship exhibition under the state government’s Skills Training and Entrepreneurship Programme and Youth Agricultural Entrepreneurship Programme, and the opening of roads in Asaba. Addressing journalists on Monday at the fourth quarterly interactive meeting with journalists in Asaba, Okowa said there was no iota of truth that the visit had political colouration. Okowa described Tambuwal, an APC governor, as his close friend, adding that he was in the state to witness the achievement his administration had recorded in the area of youth entrepreneurship in the state. He stated, “There’s no political undertone to the visit of governors Tambuwal and Wike to Asaba last week. I ...

President Muhammadu Buhari has said his major weakness lies in not knowing how to make money. He also disclosed that he even borrowed money to build his three houses in Daura, Abuja and Kaduna. The President made this known while speaking on his assets during an Interview with Sun Newspaper. According to him, “When Murtala/Obasanjo regime came, they made sure that certain grades of public officers must declare their assets when they assumed that office and they must declare when they were leaving. So, when I was sworn in as governor of North East, I declared my assets. “I declared surprisingly, even the number of my cows then. Even if they were supposed to be producing every year, but I declared them the time I was there. And when I was leaving governorship, I became petroleum minister. “When I was leaving to go to War College, I declared my assets. I could recall General Jemibewon then, was the Adjutant-General of the Army. He rang me and said he was sending m...

The Oyo State chapter of the Peoples Democratic Party on Monday dismissed the speech by the national leader of the All Progressives Congress, Bola Tinubu, while welcoming former governor Adebayo Alao-Akala and other defectors to the party on Saturday, as an attempt to sell a rejected party to the people of Oyo State. Tinubu had said the defection of Alao-Akala, Teslim Folarin and others from the PDP to the APC was a sign that the APC had become the only party in the state and that the opposition had been finally buried. But the PDP Publicity Secretary in the state, Akeem Olatunji, in a statement said the whole event and Tinubu’s statement betrayed his fear that the PDP had put its house in order. Olatunji said, “Our attention has been drawn to a statement credited to a national leader of the APC, Tinubu, at a function held to welcome defectors who have joined the APC, wherein he expressed his fears indirectly over the continuous rise and dominance of the PDP in Oyo State p...

The Federal Government has accused a former Senate President, David Mark, of illegally acquiring his then official residence as his private property. In September this year, the government, through the Special Presidential Investigation Panel for the Recovery of Public Property, which is chaired by Chief Okoi Obono-Obla, gave the former Senate President a 21-day notice to quit the mansion. The notice to quit, however, asked Mark to “show cause” why the Federal Government should not “enforce the recovery of the property for public good.” But Mark had quickly filed a suit before the Federal High Court in Abuja to quash all steps taken by the panel to evict him and recover the house from him. The case has not been heard. The PUNCH, on Monday, obtained from court sources, copies of documents, including exhibits, filed by the former Senate President in his suit challenging the recovery process. The Senate President’s official residence is sited on 1.6 hectares of la...

Vice-President Yemi Osinbajo on Tuesday explained that state governors resolved to approve money for national security after a national security summit organised by the National Economic Council. Osinbajo who chairs NEC gave the explanation at the opening of the Secretary to the Government of the Federation/Secretaries to State Governments’ retreat at the Presidential Villa, Abuja. “It was after a national security summit of the National Economic Council that Governors at their forum decided to approve some money for national security,” Osinbajo explained. It will be recalled that the Chairman of the Nigerian Governors Forum, Abdulaziz Yari had at a NEC meeting last Wednesday announced that the governors had asked the Federal Government to withdraw $1bn from the Excess Crude Account to fight the insurgency. The decision had attracted criticisms from groups and individuals, including the Ekiti State Governor, Ayodele Fayose; and the opposition Peoples Democratic P...

Her Royal Highness, Erelu Kuti IV of Lagos, Erelu Abiola Dosunmu, in this interview, shares her perspective on the controversy over the ‘ownership’ of Lagos and declares that the former federal capital was an extension of Benin Kingdom. She explains that there are no ambiguities regarding the ancestry of the aborigines of Lagos, saying they are predominantly Benin. Abiola Dosumu maintains that the Awori ,after settling in Lagos, paid royalties to Benin people. Excerpts: Erelu Abiola Dosunmu Are you not concerned about the controversy over the true aborigines of Lagos? I would not say I am concerned because I know the truth. The history of Lagos is not obscure, it is very clear. If people are going to say the truth, we all know what the truth is. A friend was saying to me if I was not sure there is no third party trying to take the rights of Lagos through this raging controversy. We all know the story of Lagos from childhood. Even a play was staged about the beginning of La...

King of afro-dancehall, Timaya, may become the first Nigerian-based act to win Grammy award, haven bagged a Grammy Nomination for featuring on Morgan Heritage’s album “Avrakedabra”. The first Nigerian, though not based in Nigeria, who won an award at the Grammy was Cynthia Erivo, a singer and actress born in London to Nigerian immigrants. Cynthia had won a Grammy for Best Musical Theatre Album for the cast recording of the musical The Color Purple in 2016. However, Timaya who featured alongside Ghanaian Afro-pop singer, Stonebwoy, Chubb Rock, Stylo G, Bunji Garlin, Dre Zion & Jaheil on Morgan Heritage’s “Avrekedabra” may become the first Nigerian-based act to win the award if the album wins the category at the 60th Grammy Awards which will air live from the Madison Square Gardens on January 28, 2018. Morgan Heritage is a reggae band formed in 1994 by five children of reggae artiste, Denroy Morgan. The band comprises Peter “Peetah” Morgan, Una Morgan, Roy “Gramps” ...

Wife of the President, Mrs. Aisha Buhari, opted to ride in a tricycle at a public function on Wednesday. Venue was her husband’s home town, Daura, Katsina State, where the First Lady had inaugurated a 50-bed capacity maternal and children clinic. which her non-governmental organisation, the Aisha Buhari Foundation, built and equipped. She also seized the occasion to make presentation of grinding machines and other materials to members of the public. According to the information released by the Federal Ministry of Information and Culture on Wednesday, Aisha, in a speech at the inauguration, decried the poor state of maternal and child health in Nigeria, saying the situation was due to the poor conditions of the primary healthcare facilities in the country generally. She called on stakeholders and well-to-do Nigerians to address the problem by contributing towards tackling the challenges women face. See the photos, courtesy, Hanan Muhammadu Buhari:

The whistle-blower who helped the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission to recover the $43m, N23.2m and £27,800 (N13bn) from an Ikoyi apartment on April 12, 2017, has finally been paid his commission, The PUNCH has learnt. It was also learnt that the whistle-blower travelled out of the country less than 24 hours after receiving part of the N421m reward. The whistle-blower’s lawyer, Mr. Yakubu Galadima, confirmed the development to our correspondent on the telephone on Wednesday. He praised the government for finally honouring its agreement after eight months. Galadima also joked that his client did not run mad after receiving the money, as predicted by some government officials. He, however, said his client had not been paid in full, adding that the Federal Government had promised to pay him the balance next year. The lawyer said, “My client confirmed to me that he had received a credit alert from the Federal Government. He travelled out of the country t...

The All Progressives Congress, APC, will welcome to its fold, former governor of Oyo State, Chief Adebayo Alao-Akala; former Senate leader, Senator Teslim Folarin and former Secretary to the State Government, Chief Ayodele Adigun, on Saturday. Also expected to join the party were Ambassador Taofeek Arapaja, Honourable Segun Odebunmi, Rauf Olaniyan, Honourable Ayoola Makanjuola, Alhaji Rasaq Gbadegesin, alongside their supporters, at a ceremony tagged “mother of all defections in the politics of Oyo State.” Akala, who defected to the Labour Party, LP, from the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, in 2014, is set to join the ruling APC alongside other bigwigs in the state. This was made known through a statement issued in Ibadan on Wednesday by the state publicity secretary of the party, Olawale Sadare and made available to newsmen. Sadare said, “Some of the political bigwigs who had joined APC since last year and a whole lot of others just coming in would be unveiled duri...

Since some patriotic Rivers people engaged in a peace walk in support of the presence of the Special Armed Robbery Squad in the state, there have been a barrage of tirades against the action of those that staged the walk. The walk which witnessd thelikes of Chief Dumo Lulu Briggs, Tonye Princewill, Asita Asita amongst others ruffled a lot of feathers within the Peoples democratic Party in the state. I may understand the divergent views which both the pro SARS and anti SARS components may have regarding the presence of the security outfit in the state and the country  at large but what has continued to beat my imagination as a Rivers son who has the state at heart is the resort to attacking the personality of some of those involved in the walk. These attacks especially on the person of Chief Dumo Lulu Briggs has become so fiendish as it has become stupid and somewhat threatening. One of the ways in which the anti SARS components led by the Peoples Democratic Party e rats ...

The Group Managing Director (GMD), Nigeria National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC), Dr. Maikanti Baru, Tuesday said the Federal Government would adopt what he termed “aggressive measure” to tackle the ongoing artificial scarcity of petroleum products across the country. According to him, part of the approach was the directive to the Department of Petroleum Resources (DPR) to not only dispense free fuel to motorists and other members of the public from filling stations found hoarding products, but seal the such stations. Baru gave the warning in Ibefun, Ogun State,during the inauguration of 300million litres tank farm sited in the community by Petrolex Mega Oil City. Baru attributed the artificial scarcity of fuel to the activities of unscrupulous marketers who he accused of hoarding the product. “We must have noticed the sudden return of fuel queues in some parts of the country last week; this is unfortunately attributable to the activities of some independent marketers wh...