FIFA spokesman, Walter De- Gregorio, said at a news conference in Zurich on Wednesday that the body planned to go ahead with its congress and the presidential election in spite of the arrests and the World Cup probe. De-Gregorio said Blatter was not affected by the probes and remains relaxed. “He is not dancing in his office. But he knows it is the consequence of what we initiated”, he said.

“I gave the state a clear direction and so when voting started, there was no surprise that even in the three senatorial zones the people massively voted for us. Therefore, at the collation centres where the results were changed, everybody is in a state of mourning. Nobody has raised a flag that they won an election, in fact, they were adviced to stay indoors, because of the contrary results,” he said.

Ms Zainab Bangura, UN Special Representative of the Secretary-General on Sexual Violence in Conflict, on Wednesday decried reported rape and forced marriages of female captives of Boko Haram. Bangura lamented in a statement signed by her Office’s Advocacy and Women’s Rights Specialist, Ms Letitia Anderson, that one year after the Chibok Girls abduction many were still in captivity.

“All motorcycle and tricycle operators in the state will from next week Monday, June 1, be barred from plying the Enugu-Onitsha highway, as well as Arthur Eze Avenue and Zik’s Avenue in Awka. “Similarly, it will be illegal for all motorcycles, either private or commercial, to ply the Onitsha-Owerri expressway, Awka Road, Borromew-Upper Iweka-Bridge Head road, Old and New Market Roads and Oguta Road, all in Onitsha. “In Nnewi, they are prohibited from the Nnewi-Nnobi road and Nnewi-Oba road.

Pressure mounted on football’s ruling body FIFA Wednesday as police detained six football officials in Zurich on US bribery charges.
Prosecutors also seized FIFA documents in a separate probe over the 2018 and 2022 World Cup decisions. The separate but coordinated investigations came shortly before the expected re-election of FIFA president Joseph Blatter, who seeks a fifth term on Friday in spite of criticism of FIFA’s governance.

An Ikeja High Court in Lagos on Wednesday adjourned a N150 billion libel suit filed by former Lagos State Governor, Asiwaju Bola Tinubu, against the African Independent Communication (AIT) till June 30. Justice Iyabo Akinkugbe adjourned the suit to enable Tinubu’s counsel respond to the counter-claim filed by AIT.

President Goodluck Jonathan, Wednesday, forwarded the report of the National Conference, Confab, to the Senate for consideration and necessary legislative actions.

RECENTLY the Nigerian Export-Import Bank, NEXIM Bank, embarked on a deliberate programme of building partnerships designed to deliver value to its stakeholders and target public as the Nigeria’s sole Government Trade Policy Bank. This development has been applauded by both players and watchers in the Nigerian SMEs, especially those operating in the manufacturing, agro-processing, solid minerals and services sectors.

The emergence of Muhammadu Buhari as the sixth democratically elected president of Nigeria was greeted with great optimism and high expectations by most Nigerians, particularly the downtrodden. Buhari’s victory was momentous and instructive, considering that it was his fourth straight attempt at the presidency!

WHEN Goodluck Jonathan steps down in two days time and Muhammadu Buhari takes over as president, he would have helped to give practical demonstration to that much remarked (in our parts) but hardly realised notion of popular democracy, that sovereignty lies with the people. By handing over power to Buhari, Jonathan would only be abiding by the will of the people who said, on March 28 2015, that they wanted a change of leadership.

President of the Federal Republic of Guinea, President Alpha Condé yesterday arrived Nigeria ahead of President Muhammadu Buhari’s inauguration in Abuja on Friday, May 29.

Bid to garner massive endorsement of Hon. Femi Gbajabiamila’s candidacy for the Speakership of the House of Representatives using the 2015 retreat of the All Progressives Congress, APC in Abuja failed woefully yesterday.

A Civil Society Organisation, the Incorporated Trustees of Advocacy for Societal Rights Advancement and Development Initiative, has ‎asked the Federal Court in Abuja to stop the Chief Justice of Nigeria, CJN, Justice Mahmud Mohammed, from administering oath on the President-elect, Muhammadu Buhari on May 29.

Before the strike by the National Union of Petroleum and Natural Gas Workers, NUPENG, was called off on Monday, most bus-stops in Lagos played host to crowds of stranded commuters who were on the receiving end of a biting fuel scarcity that kept commercial and private vehicles off the roads for days. And while the scarcity lasted, it was complaints and lamentation galore among Lagos residents who found it difficult coping with the challenges engendered by the development.

The timely intervention of detectives from Ondo State Police Command reportedly saved a 25-year-old psychiatric patient from being set ablaze for allegedly attempting to kidnap some primary school pupils in Ondo town, yesterday.