TWENTY-FOUR hours after President Bola Tinubu unveiled plans to tackle factors responsible for food crisis, the Federal Competition and Consumer Protection Commission (FCCPC), sealed Sahad Store, a popular supermarket in the Garki area of Abuja. The management of the supermarket was accused of shortchanging customers by charging prices other than the price tag at the shelves. The enforcement was led by FCCPC Acting Executive Vice Chairman, Adamu Ahmed Abdullahi. Briefing journalists on the sidelines of the event, Abdullahi said the commission’s preliminary investigation confirmed that the management of the supermarket were short changing customers. He said the store would remain…
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MANCHESTER United’s squad last year were the “most expensive ever assembled” in football, says a Uefa report. The European Club Finance and Investment Landscape report says United’s players at the end of their 2023 financial year cost 1.42bn euros (£1.21bn) in combined transfer fees. The 2020 Real Madrid squad were previously the most costly at £1.13bn. United’s squad included £82m Antony, £80m Harry Maguire, £73m Jadon Sancho and £70m Casemiro. The total does not include £72m Rasmus Hojlund, £55m Mason Mount or £47m Andre Onana, all of whom joined in the 2023 summer transfer window. United finished third in the…
FRANCE captain Kylian Mbappe has told officials at Paris Saint-Germain that he intends to leave when his contract expires at the end of the season, a source close to the Ligue 1 champions said on Thursday. The 25-year-old, who arrived in Paris from Monaco in 2017, had extended his contract in 2022 until 2024 but last summer declined to activate a clause allowing him to stay another year at PSG. Mbappe has been widely tipped to move to Real Madrid and, according to a source close to the matter, has already entered negotiations with the Spanish giants. “The terms of…
ISRAEL’s military claims it has captured “dozens” of suspects during a raid on southern Gaza’s main hospital, as staff and patients were forced to flee under gunfire. Israel said it launched a “precise and limited mission” at Nasser hospital in Khan Younis, adding it had intelligence that Hamas had held hostages there. Hamas dismissed the claim as “lies”. The hospital’s director told the BBC that conditions inside were “catastrophic and very dangerous”. However, he said Israeli special forces involved in the hospital raid had yet to find any evidence of kidnapped Israelis and that the search was continuing. His comments…
VENEZUELA’s foreign minister said Thursday he had decided to “suspend the activities” of the UN rights office in the country and ordered its staff to leave within 72 hours. The move comes two days after the United Nations agency expressed “deep concern” over the detention of prominent rights activist Rocio San Miguel and called for her “immediate release.” Foreign Minister Yvan Gil said the office had taken on an “inappropriate role” and had become “the private law firm of the coup plotters and terrorists who permanently conspire against the country.” He said the decision would remain in place until the…
KENYAN police have re-arrested a fugitive murder suspect who had escaped from police custody, local media report. Kelvin Kangethe, 41, is wanted by US authorities in connection with the killing of his girlfriend in Boston last October. He has not commented on the allegations. He had been detained in Kenya awaiting a decision on whether to extradite him to the US. Last week, he escaped from a police station in the capital, Nairobi, where he was being held. Nairobi police chief Adamson Bungei said the suspect was captured on Tuesday night in Ngong – on the outskirts of the capital…
THE prominent Zimbabwean opposition politician, Job Sikhala, has been fined and given a nine-month suspended prison sentence after being found guilty of publishing falsehoods on social media. In 2021 he said that a police officer had killed a child at a bus stop. Sikhala’s lawyer said he should never have been charged in the first place under a law which the top court long ruled to be unconstitutional. The politician has just been released from almost two years of pre-trial detention on unrelated charges. He has accused the government of weaponising the courts, and faces another appearance on Friday.
BRITAIN is in recession, official data showed Thursday, dealing another blow to embattled Prime Minister Rishi Sunak, whose Conservative party is forecast to lose a general election expected this year. Gross domestic product shrank 0.3 percent in the fourth quarter of 2023 after contracting 0.1 percent in the prior three months, the Office for National Statistics (ONS) said in a statement. That places the economy in recession, which is defined as two quarters of falling GDP in a row. While economists predicted that the recession could be short-lived, the data is a big setback for Sunak, who has placed economic…
THE World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) said Tuesday it has referred Nigeria and Venezuela to the Court of Arbitration for Sport over alleged non-compliance of their anti-doping agencies with WADA rules. WADA said it filed last week “two separate requests for arbitration with the Court of Arbitration for Sport” for the two cases. The two national agencies were sanctioned in November for not addressing what the Montreal-based doping watchdog said were several “critical requirements” to their anti-doping programs. That resulted in them losing their rights within the organization, no longer being permitted host major sporting events and a ban on their…
PROTESTERS denouncing Israel’s offensive in Gaza disrupted a foreign policy debate in Sweden’s parliament on Wednesday, as the country’s foreign minister reiterated support for Israel’s right to self-defence against Hamas. Security guards escorted a woman out of the public gallery after she shouted that Israel “was committing genocide”, as Foreign Minister Tobias Billstrom presented the government’s foreign policy declaration to parliament. “Sweden supports Israel’s legitimate right to defend itself against Hamas in accordance with international law,” Billstrom said before being interrupted. He added that “in light of the catastrophic situation in Gaza, the government believes that a ceasefire is necessary…
ONE person has died and 21 people were wounded in a shooting in Missouri at the end of the Kansas City Chiefs’ Super Bowl victory parade. Officials said they treated eight victims who were in immediately life-threatening condition and seven others who had suffered injuries that could prove life-threatening. Nine children were among the wounded – all are expected to recover. Police said they have arrested three suspects in connection to the shooting. The shots were fired west of Union Station, the train station in downtown Kansas City, which was where the parade ended at around 14:00 local time (20:00…
AUTHORITIES in Somalia have banned wearing of face masks in the capital, Mogadishu, due to security concerns. The spokesperson of the Mogadishu administration, Salah Dheere, said that wearing of masks was being used to hide identity and facilitate criminal activities. The masks were widely used during the Covid-19 pandemic. Authorities also outlawed wearing of hats and carrying of weapons in public transport. However, traditional sunnah hats worn by elders are exempt from the ban. The decision was made during a recent security meeting in Mogadishu, chaired by President Hassan Sheikh Mohamud. Somalia has been plagued by insecurity for years, with…
GHANA’s President Nana Akufo-Addo has replaced Finance Minister Ken Ofori-Atta, as the West African country eyes an economic recovery. Mr Ofori-Atta has been in office since 2017 and has faced criticism for Ghana’s current economic crisis, the worst to hit the country in decades. At the height of the crisis in 2022, inflation surpassed 50% and the government defaulted on loan payments. It subsequently restructured its debt with creditors to qualify for an IMF bailout. Mohammed Amin Adam, who previously served as deputy energy minister and minister of state in the finance ministry, was on Wednesday appointed as Mr Ofori-Atta’s…
THE President of the Senate, Godswill Akpabio, has announced an over 37-member constitution review committee on the 1999 constitution to be chaired by the Deputy Senate President, Barau Jibrin. The committee would also comprise one lawmaker from each geopolitical zone and the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), Abuja. The committee, in particular, will review the laws in the area of artificial intelligence, state police, among others. and is expected to be inaugurated next week Tuesday. There have been clamour for state police as Nigeria grapples with worsening security challenges such as kidnapping and banditry. Governors elected on the platform of the…
AS THE the rising cost of living continues to bite, many families in northern Nigeria are turning to rice grains that millers once either normally rejected after processing or sold to farmers to feed their fish. These are referred to in the Hausa language, widely spoken in the north, as AFAFATA, which means “battling” because they are literally a battle to cook and eat as the grains are so hard. “A few years ago, people didn’t care about this type of rice, and we usually threw it away along with the rice hulls, but times have changed,” Isah Hamisu, a…
SAUDI Arabia will stage its first ranking snooker event in 2024, with a prize pool of more than £2 million ($2.5 million) for the “fourth major”. The inaugural Saudi Arabia Snooker Masters will trail only the World Championship in terms of prize money. The World Snooker Tour has branded it alongside the sport’s three elite tournaments; the World Championship, the UK Championship and the Masters. A 10-year deal has been agreed for the event, which will take place from August 31 to September 7 in Riyadh and is open to the entire tour, plus six local wild cards. The Riyadh…
A TOP UN official has warned an Israeli assault on Rafah, Gaza’s southernmost city, could lead to a “slaughter”. Humanitarian chief Martin Griffiths said Palestinians in Gaza were already suffering an “assault that is unparalleled in its intensity, brutality and scope”. The consequences of an invasion of Rafah would be “catastrophic”, he said. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has vowed to defeat Hamas gunmen he says are hiding in the city. In an unusually strongly worded statement, Mr Griffiths said over a million people were “crammed in Rafah, staring death in the face”. He said civilians in the city had…
RUSSIA declared Estonian leader Kaja Kallas and several other European officials as “wanted” on Tuesday over their alleged involvement in the destruction of Soviet-era war memorials. The monuments, some of which commemorate the Red Army, had long been controversial in Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania and seen by many as symbols of their time under Soviet occupation. The three Baltic states began removing and demolishing some of them in response to Russia’s full-scale assault on Ukraine in 2022, prompting outrage in Moscow. Russia said it had added several people to its wanted list in response to the “destruction of monuments to…
SENEGALESE authorities on Tuesday suspended mobile internet and banned a march against the delay of this month’s presidential poll, as the UN voiced concern about tensions in the country. Three people have been killed during violent protests after President Macky Sall’s decision to push back the February 25 vote plunged traditionally stable Senegal into one of its worst crises in decades. “We are deeply concerned about the tense situation in Senegal,” Liz Throssell, spokeswoman for the United Nations rights office, told reporters in Geneva. “Following reports of unnecessary and disproportionate use of force against protesters and restrictions on civic space,…
LIBERIA’s President Joseph Boakai has appointed a retired female brigadier general, Geraldine George, as the acting minister of defence after protests by the wives of soldiers forced the resignation of her predecessor. This is the first time a woman is serving in the post, though it is unclear why Mrs George has been appointed only in an acting capacity. She enlisted in the army in 2006 as it was being rebuilt following the end of a civil war and rose to become part of the elite forces. She has served as the deputy chief of staff for the last six…