The Nigeria Football Federation has cleared the air on stories about the body hijacking a donation to the Dream team from Japanese plastic surgeon, Dr. Katsuya Takasu.
Prior before the third place match between Nigeria’s Dream Team and Honduras, which Nigeria won and claimed the bronze medal, there were stories circulating on social media that the Nigeria Football Federation had hijacked the donation from a Japanese Plastic surgeon, Dr. Katsuya Takasu who promised Dream Team a cash prize if they go on to clinch any medal (Gold, Silver or Bronze) at the Men’s football event of the Rio Olympics.
However, the Nation’s football body as come out to debunk such claims, in a statement issued on their website, the NFF President, Amaju Pinnick said: “His message was a lie, an atrocious false alarm before an important match. I had exchanged correspondence with the Honourable Minister on the issue of the donation and we agreed that there was need for caution. The Minister said to me that he read the donation in the papers and had expressed serious concern. I also received a mail from the NFF Integrity Officer who expressed very serious concern with this kind of donation.
“I got in touch with the Ambassador of Nigeria to Brazil and the Honourable Minister to say that whatever had to be done should be done after the Bronze Medal Match, to avoid any distractions. The NFF may be having financial challenges, but I assure you nobody in the Federation is interested in that money.
“If we get the Government’s go-ahead to collect the money, no official of the NFF will be involved even in the collection. The money will be received directly by the team.
“There are matters in the football world today that FIFA and the various confederations frown at. We are very much aware of that”.
If we had rushed to collect that kind of money and hand over to the players, the same people who are condemning the NFF now would have said worse things.
Although, it remains unclear whether former goalkeeper Peterside Idah who started the discussion on social media will provide proves to substantiate his controversial claims. Thanks for reading.
Former Reds Striker Takes Subtle Dig At Jurgen Klopp
Christian Benteke claims a lack of trust from Jurgen Klopp caused his failure to establish himself at Liverpool.
Former Liverpool Player Christain Benteke has said Jurgen Klopp did not trust enough to lead the line at the club, he believed the reds manager did not have faith in his abilities during his time at Anfield.
Christain Benteke who joined Liverpool from Aston Villa in club record fee of £32 million by Brendan Rodgers but the arrival of Jurgen Klopp to Anfield saw the Belgian slipped down the pecking order.
During his first interview as a Palace player, the Belgium international said: ‘A lot of things happened at Liverpool, When I arrived it was with Rodgers as manager, but then he was sacked and Klopp came in and had his own plan. But that’s part of football. I could have done better, but I think I also needed some trust from the manager and the staff.’
Benteke signed a four-year deal with Crystal Palace to put end to a torrid time at the Merseyside; the former Aston Villa striker will hope to put his past behind him and help an ailing Crystal Palace side back to its full strength. Thanks for reading.
Barcelona Confirms Imminent Departure Of Key Player To Man City
Barcelona has confirmed the imminent departure of goalkeeper Claudio Bravo to Manchester city.
The arrival of Claudio bravo to the Etihad Stadium has merely been confirmed by Barcelona after Technical secretary, Robert Fernandez admits the goalie is on his way out of the Camp Nou.
Robert Fernandez said: “We have the beginning of an agreement with Manchester City for Claudio Bravo,” We are awaiting events this week. When Claudio leaves, we hope to have a new keeper.”
Bravo who has fallen down the pecking order at the camp Nou to a much younger Andre ter stegen may be offered a lifeline by Pep Guardiola who already showed Joe hart the way out of the Etihad stadium after continually dropping the Englishman from the starting line-up so far this season.
It is believed that Pep Guardiola prefers a keeper who is better with the ball at his feet which the 33-year-old Chilean fits the bill.
Barcelona might also be on the look out for replacement for the Chile international was brought in to replace Victor Valdes but saw the Number One spot snatched away by Ter stegen last season. Thanks for reading.
FG Raises Alert On Fake Drugs In Circulation
The Federal Government on Saturday raised alert on two confirmed falsified versions of Quinine Sulphate in circulation in West and Central Africa.
The Federal Ministry of Health received a medical alert that the two falsified drugs contain zero active pharmaceutical ingredients, Mrs Boade Akinola, Director, Media and Public Relations of the ministry, said in a statement said.
Akinola said the two version of the drug were circulating in Cameroon and Democratic Republic of Congo. She said the quinine Sulphate was used in the treatment of malaria.
According to her, the implication of using the falsified one is that it will not be effective and may also lead to other health challenges.
She said one of the fake products was named Quinine Sulfate 300 mg with 1000 Tablets per container, Batch Number 10H05, expiry date 09/2018 and it manufactured 09/2014.
Akinola added that the drug manufactured by Novadina Pharmaceutical Limited, London, United Kingdom was first was discovered in Cameroon.
The director said the other version of the fake drug was Quinine Sulphate 300mg with 100 Tablets per container; batch F4387, expiry date 11/18 and its date of manufacture is 12/14.
She explained that the product was manufactured in India by CAD Pharm, and it was discovered in Bunia, Democratic Republic of the Congo.
She advised Nigerians to be vigilant and report to the nearest National Agency for Food and Drug Administration office anywhere the drugs were spotted including hospitals and pharmaceutical shops.
The ministry urges Nigerians to also report it the following GSM no +234-8037881120, +234-8055056727 and +234-8035902679. “If you are in possession of these products, please do not use them. “If you have taken this falsified product or if you suffer an adverse effect following its uptake, please seek immediate advice from a qualified healthcare professional and report the incident to NAFDAC.’’ Thanks for reading.
Usain Bolt leads Jamaica to 4x100m gold to complete Olympic triple treble
“There you go,” said Usain Bolt moments after the world watched him go supersonic for a final time in the Olympics. “I am the greatest.” Once again it was impossible to argue.
When the baton was slapped into his hand on the final leg of the men’s 4x100m relay, Jamaica, US, and Japan were in a line, all theoretically vying for gold. But then Bolt applied those familiar afterburners and blasted away from his opponents and towards the pages of history.
This was his third gold medal of these Games, his ninth overall at the Olympics. No wonder he savoured a super slow lap of honour, waving at every Jamaican flag in the Olympic Stadium and dancing with his team-mates, Asafa Powell, Nickel Ashmeade and Yohan Blake on the back straight.
“I am proud of myself and I have to say thanks to the guys,” said Bolt. “The pressure is real. I look at it as an accomplishment. I live for these moments, it is beautiful and I came through. I’ll go home, stay up late tonight talking and having fun. It is not real. It is a brilliant feeling. I told the guys if it didn’t happen tonight I would beat them up.”
Behind the Jamaicans, who finished in a time of 37.27 seconds, were Japan, who took a shock silver in 37.60. None of the Japanese team have personal bests under 10 seconds but their use of the underhand baton pass – rather than the more common upsweep method – made their changeovers far slicker than everyone else.
Canada were pushed up to the bronze medal position after the US team were disqualified. The Americans heard the news just as they finished their lap of honour.
It was actually the Canadians who alerted them to the DQ by their country’s name on the stadium scoreboard. Later it transpired that the baton change between Mike Rodgers and Justin Gatlin had been illegal. Said Gatlin: “It was the twilight zone. It was a nightmare. You work so hard with your team-mates, guys you compete against almost all year long. All that hard work just crumbles.”
Britain’s team of Richard Kilty, Harry Aikines-Aryeetey, James Ellington and Adam Gemili – who were without the injured James Dasaolu and CJ Ujah, who was surprisingly dropped - were a disappointing fifth in 37.98sec after struggling to cope with the very sharp bend in lane one.
Usain Bolt joins the immortals just as the cracks begin to appear
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“It’s not an excuse but it’s the truth it is more difficult in lane one,” said Ellington. “We genuinely believed we could go out there and win it or get a medal at worst and run our asses off and it was not meant to be. We know what we are capable of more so we are going to have to go back as a team and rebuild and get ready for London next year on our own terms and if we change it around then this will be forgotten.”
But this night was all about Bolt, who has had the crowds coming to the stadium for his Olympic farewell tour all week. As Blake put it afterwards: “Usain needs to be immortal and he is immortal, but I will encourage him to come back for 2020.”
Bolt’s long, poignant wave to the large throng of Jamaican supporters as he left the stadium suggested he has other ideas. Thanks for reading.
Customs Impounds 31 Rice Containers
The Nigerian Customs Service (NCS) has impounded 31 containers of rice illegally imported into the country.
The items were seized on Friday at the Tin-Can Island Container Terminal (TICT), Lagos.
The Comptroller-General of Customs Col Hameed Ali who was represented by a Deputy Comptroller-General ( DCG) Dan Ugo said the items were shipped into the from China, adding that the importer wanted to shortchange the government by declaring the items as yeast in his bill of laden.
According to him, yeast importation attracts five per cent duty, while rice attracts 110 per cent duty and 60 per cent levy.
The Comptroller-General has therefore declared that over 40, 000 bags of rice inside the containers as outright seizure without any option of payment for the importer for falsifying his document.
He said; the measure, was taken to serve as deterrent to other scrupulous importers operating at the nation’s sea ports and border stations.
The CGC retracted that the era false declaration and debit note was over; saying importers with false declaration of imports would be punished by the government.
“We have told clearing agents and importers to do genuine declaration. We are all talking of trade facilitation at port and some importers are busy abusing the system,” he said. Thanks for reading.
Judge orders Clinton to answer email server questions from Judicial Watch
A federal judge has ordered Hillary Clinton to answer written questions about her use of a private email server while at the state department in response to a lawsuit by a conservative watchdog group, though he declined to make her submit to a sworn deposition.
District court judge Emmet Sullivan said Clinton must reply in writing to questions posed by the group, Judicial Watch, about why she set up a system to conduct state department business, a decision that led to an FBI investigation and has haunted the Democratic nominee’s campaign for over a year.
The judge said the group failed to demonstrate that an hours-long deposition was necessary to clarify why Clinton set up the private server, as opposed to seeking the information “through other, less burdensome or intrusive means such as interrogatories”.
“Judicial Watch’s argument that a deposition is preferable in this case because of the ability to ask follow-up questions is not persuasive,” Sullivan wrote. “Given the extensive public record related to the clintonemail.com system, a record which Judicial Watch has acknowledged, Judicial Watch will be able to anticipate many follow-up questions.”
Judicial Watch made a name for itself by dogging former president Bill Clinton, and has now filed a number of lawsuits under the Freedom of Information Act (Foia) seeking records from the state department about Hillary Clinton’s time spent as the nation’s top diplomat.
Judicial Watch’s president, Tom Fitton, praised the judge’s decision in a statement. “We are pleased that this federal court ordered Hillary Clinton to provide written answers under oath to some key questions about her email scandal,” he said. “We will move quickly to get these answers. The decision is a reminder that Hillary Clinton is not above the law.”
The decision means Clinton will probably not have to step away from the campaign trail to sit for an interview with some of her fiercest critics, but ensures that the controversy will continue to follower her throughout the final weeks of the presidential campaign.
Judicial Watch has until 14 October to submit questions to Clinton, who must respond within 30 days, according to the decision.
Separately, Sullivan approved Judicial Watch’s request to depose John Bentel, a senior state department aide who has since retired, due to “contradictory evidence” about the extent of his knowledge of Clinton’s server and email practices. However, he declined the group’s request to depose Clarence Finney, a state department official handling Foia requests.
In July, the FBI closed its investigation into Clinton’s email server after she sat for a three-hour interview. Director James Comey said that while she and her staff had been “extremely careless” in their handling of emails, a handful of which contained classified information at the time, the FBI would not recommend prosecutors seek charges in the case.
The judge also ordered the federal government to begin releasing the “thousands of work-related emails” that the FBI said it had recovered in its investigation.
Clinton has apologized for setting up the server, maintaining that the decision was a “mistake” and not an attempt to obfuscate her actions or skirt reporting laws. She also noted that this was the practice of her predecessors, though the law was tightened by the Obama administration.
Earlier this week, the New York Times reported that former secretary of state Colin Powell was said to have advised Clinton to use a personal email account. The report was based on notes from the FBI handed over to Congress.
In a statement, Powell’s office said he wrote Clinton an “email memo describing his use of his personal AOL email account for unclassified messages and how it vastly improved communications within the State Department” while also noting that “at the time there was no equivalent system with the department”. Thanks for reading.
