9ja Update

World heavyweight champion, Tyson Fury’s father, John Fury has insisted that his son will knock out fellow British fighter, Anthony Joshua in the first round when both boxers contest next year. John said this during an interview with BT Sport. DAILY POST recalls that  Fury and Joshua  had agreed on a two-fight deal in principle to fight twice in 2021 to crown the undisputed heavyweight world champion. “Anthony Joshua will think he’s fighting an eel in cold water, he won’t be able to touch Tyson, and he will hit him that hard his heart will go,” John said. “It will be a more relaxed night than Deontay Wilder. 'I will retake all bets; in the first round Tyson will come out jabbing, slipping and sliding and bang! Joshua will fall to pieces after the first right hand because he will know he can’t beat this man. “I’m not just saying that because he’s my son, I tell it as I see it; they’re all terrified of Tyson.”                    ...

Michael Owen has thrown his support behind Manchester United’s decision to extend Odion Ighalo’s loan deal and believes the striker has proven his doubters wrong at Old Trafford. Eyebrows were raised when United wrapped up a temporary agreement with Shanghai Greenland Shenhua for Ighalo in January but the 30-year-old seized his opportunity with both hands, racking up four goals and an assist in his opening eight appearances. The break-in football caused by the coronavirus crisis put Ighalo’s future in serious doubt as it meant the Nigerian’s contract came to an end with nine Premier League matches remaining of the season. But the Red Devils ended the uncertainty last week as Ighalo, a lifelong fan of the club, put pen to paper on a six-month extension. ‘I like him, I like him a lot,’ former United and England forward Owen said on Premier League Productions. ‘I know people turn their nose up at him because he’s come from Chinese football or because he’s on loan, he’s not a sexy £60m pla...

Lagos State High Court, Igbosere on Wednesday sentenced two men, Williams Umoh Udoh and Ubong Lazarus Isaiah, to death for armed robbery in Lagos. The court sentenced Ubong Isaiah to death for armed robbery while Williams Udoh was sentenced to a separate 21 years imprisonment for rape at the scene of the crime. The two robbers were earlier arraigned by the Lagos State Government on an amended five-count charge in June 2017. The defendants, who pleaded not guilty, robbed the residents of Ologun and Darashe, a street in Shepherd Estate, Ijegun on the 2nd of August 2015 while the 1st defendant William Udoh raped one of the victims on her matrimonial bed. They were arrested by the police and arraigned for conspiracy to commit robbery and armed robbery. The lead prosecutor, permanent secretary in Lagos State Ministry of Justice, Titilayo Shitta urged the court to sentence the defendants accordingly having found them guilty of the charges against them. She noted that the testimonies of six w...

They also renewed commitment to ensuring that offenders face the full weight of the law.    File photo The Nigeria Governors Forum has agreed to declare a state of emergency on s*xual and gender-based violence against women and children, The PUNCH reports. They also renewed commitment to ensuring that offenders face the full weight of the law. This was contained in a communique signed by the Chairman of the NGF, Dr. Kayode Fayemi, after the forum’s 10th COVID-19 Teleconference meeting held on Wednesday. The communique was issued in Abuja, on Thursday, The PUNCH reports. Governors agreed to,  “Declare a State of Emergency on Sexual and Gender-based Violence. Governors strongly condemned all forms of violence against women and children and committed to ensuring that offenders face the maximum weight of the law; “Call on State Governors that have not already domesticated relevant gender-based protection laws to domesticate the Violence Against Persons (Prohibition) Act, the ...

Uwa's death story has taken another toll.  Initially it was reported that she went to read in a Redeemed Christian Church of God in Edo State and was raped, assaulted. While in the hospital she gave up the ghost as a result of the intensity of the assaults.     Later, it was reported that on allegedly suspect of the gang, Mr. Chibuzor confessed to the DSS that it was the clergy in charge of the parish that gave them a sum of 1.5 million naira to kill Uwa. The journalist, Mr. Ayo Ademokoyo Now, Uwa death story had towed another line. This was made known by a journalist named Ayo Ademokoya, who took to Facebook to give the update. From our source, Ayo Ademokoyo, Uwa got pregnant for the pastor, he ordered her to about it but she refused. They arranged to meet and talk over things at their usual hangout spot which was the church premises. Since she couldn't report the matter to anybody she agreed to meet him.  The pastor did not show up rather she met the paid hood...

By Oludayo Tade TRIBAL rapists in the past two weeks have competed to out-perform one another in their sinister career of not only having unlawful carnal knowledge but also gruesomely eliminating two of their victims from mother earth and plunging their immediate families and national community into mourning mood and actively seeking justice. These organised criminals unleashed violence on promising teenagers and terminated their dreams of becoming successful while turning two decades of parental investments into losses of monumental proportion. Away from COVID-19 pandemic and its associated complexities, sadness envelopes the national space as promising young girls were eliminated unjustly by ‘familiar foes’. This has been our experience from May 27 in Edo State, where the life ambition of 22-year-old Uwaila Omozuwa was made unrealisable by a gang of rapists and murderers; to the Pacesetter state where Barakat Bello (18 years), suffered similar fate in her house on June 1, 2020; to Aj...

Former vice-President Atiku Abubakar Adamu Atiku Abubakar, son of the former vice president and presidential candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP in the last election , Atiku Abubakar  says his father will contest for president in 2023. Atiku had lost to President Muhammadu Buhari in the 2019 presidential election and has been contesting for the position since 1993. Adamu said this while presenting his scorecard as commissioner for works and energy in Adamawa state on Ahmadu Finitiri’s first anniversary as governor. PUNCH reports that the Adamu made it known that his father had remained a master politician and there is nothing wrong if he contests again. “Personally, I don’t see anything wrong with my father contesting for the presidency. In 2023, my father will be aspiring to the number one office in the land because he has been an astute, strategic, master politician for almost four decades,” he said. Speaking foe himself, he said, “I am basically here to serve my peopl...

In the past few weeks, customers with pending issues on their accounts have had horrible experiences trying to access the banks and rectify the issues.    File photo Banks all over the country are experiencing unusual surge in patronage. It is expected and Abuja banks are no exception. The surge surfaced after the Federal Government partially relaxed the lockdown imposed to curb the spread of the novel coronavirus pandemic. Customers are now spending hours at the few bank branches opened to operation. In the past few weeks, customers with pending issues on their accounts have had horrible experiences trying to access the banks and rectify the issues. At first, only few bank branches were open for business with many customers kept outside their gates. They were allowed into the banking hall in batches to abide by the social and physical distancing measures. They were forced to spend hours at the bank premises waiting for attention from few available officials with large number ...

By Aare Afe Babalola SAN, The origin of Nigeria’s external debt dates back to 1958 when a loan of US$28 million was obtained from the World Bank. The fund, which was made available to the Nigerian Railway Corporation, was for a five-year tenor to improve Nigeria’s rail system and to build a new line into the North-eastern province for the purpose of expansion in production and trade. Later in 1964, the country obtained a loan of US$13.1 million from the Paris Club of Creditor Nations for the building of the Niger Dam. Subsequently, the much talked “jumbo loan” of $1billion was obtained from the International Capital Market, ICM, in 1978, thereby setting the slippery slope of the resort to huge foreign loans in motion and consequently changing the structure of Nigeria’s debts from mainly concessional loans to loans with harsher repayments terms. Nigeria’s recourse to foreign loans first generated public outcry in 1985 when the then-military President, Ibrahim Babangida, obtained a $2.4 ...

It is no longer news that Nigeria was late in responding to the outbreak of COVID-19. The window of opportunity, those few but precious days during which we should have slammed the doors of our borders closed to the outside world while carefully scrutinising both Nigerian and foreign arrivals from abroad, were allowed to go to waste. With our eyes wide open we looked on as the rest of the world moved to protect their citizens from the onslaught of a disease that would soon grow to become a pandemic. Abuja obviously bought into the initial myth that Africans were immune to the disease. Even if that has been disproved by the spread of the virus across the country after the February 27 identification of our country’s index case, it is certainly no myth that the disease has a very slow spreading rate in Africa. Otherwise, and although it may still be early days yet, the dark vision-cum-prophesy of Melinda Gates about dead bodies littering everywhere in Africa would have come to pass given ...

COVID-19 may lead to the loss of 13 million jobs in Nigeria, the World Food Programme (WFP) of the United Nations (UN) said on Wednesday. WFP’s Senior Spokesperson, Elisabeth Byrs, said this in a statement. According to Byrs, more than $182m is needed to sustain life-saving aid to Nigeria over the next six months. She also explained that over 3.8 million citizens, especially those in the informal sector, could lose their jobs. That figure could rise to 13 million if the restriction on movements persists for long. “We are concerned by conflict-affected communities in North-East Nigeria who already face extreme hunger and who are especially vulnerable. “They are on life-support and need assistance to survive,” Byrs said. Byrs also revealed that three million vulnerable people in Abuja, Kano and Lagos would also receive assistance from the WFP.                                      Source: https:/...

Amid the pandemic, a Nigerian professor has warned the FG of the risk of reopening schools.    President Muhammadu Buhari   A Professor of Educational Management, Sidikat Ijaiya, has asked the federal government to ensure that proper assessment was done before schools are permitted to reopen.   Ijaijya on Wednesday warned that such assessment should be completed ahead resumption of students to avoid widespread coronavirus infections.   The former Deputy Vice-Chancellor – Academics, University of Ilorin, told newsmen in the Kwara State capital, that in spite of fear, something has to be done for schools to resume.   She observed that private schools online lessons were working for parents and students in urban areas, while the rural dweller are left out “In any case, online lessons cannot take the place of face-to-face teaching in the education of young citizens, so, it is inevitable,”  NAN quoted her as saying.   She urged all Nigerians to “speak ...