NFF OWING STEPHEN KESHI, DANIEL AMOKACHI & IKE SHORUNMU 5 MONTH SALARY

Nigeria coach Stephen Keshi has not been paid since he led the Super Eagles to a third Africa Cup of Nations title five months ago.

However, the ex-Super Eagles captain has not made an official complaint. And the Nigerian Football Federation has told BBC Sport that the situation is "under control".

"Between the federation and the coaching crew, we don't have a problem," said NFF general secretary general Musa Amadu.

Continue reading the main story “Obligations to the coaching crew are always settled, and we have the understanding of the coaching crew in this regard ” Musa Amadu NFF general secretary "We've been working together with Stephen Keshi since November 2011 and he knows the peculiar situation [financial problems] of how things are with the federation.

"We try as much as possible to pay our obligations, likewise the coach, and we've had a very good working relationship.
"I know the coach will not bring to the fore any such matters," he added.

The NFF, which is in in serious financial difficulty, also owes money to assistant coach Daniel Amokachi and goalkeeper trainer Ike Shorunmu.

The football authority, which receives its funding from the sports ministry, has acknowledged the debts owed to the coaches but says they will have to be patient.
"Perhaps there are people out there that want to capitalise on such matters to create problems between the federation and the coach," Amadu said.

"But I know that obligations to the coaching crew are always settled, and we do have the understanding of the coaching crew in this regard.

"We appreciate that understanding and right now the focus is not about what is being written in the media but it is on the CHAN qualifiers."

It is not the first time Nigerian coaches have been not been paid.
Last December, the NFF revealed it owed Keshi two months' salary - just weeks before the start of the 2013 Africa Cup of Nations.

Nigeria take on Ivory Coast this weekend in a first-round, first leg African Nations Championship qualifier.

BREAKING NEWS: IN YOBE BOKO HARAM BURNED SCHOOL CHILDREN & TEACHERS ALIVE

At least 29 pupils and a teacher have been killed in a pre-dawn attack by suspected Islamists on a school in northeastern Nigeria, reports say.

Eyewitnesses said some of the victims were burned alive in the attack, in Mamudo town, Yobe state.

Yobe is one of three states where President Goodluck Jonathan declared a state of emergency in May, sending thousands of troops to the area.

A reporter from the Associated Press found chaotic scenes at the hospital in nearby Potiskum, where traumatised parents struggled to identify their children among the charred bodies and gunshot victims.

Survivors said suspected militants arrived with containers full of fuel and set fire to the school.

Some pupils were burned alive, others were shot as they tried to flee.

The BBC's Will Ross, in Lagos, says this area has frequently been attacked by the Boko Haram militant group.

More than 600 people were believed to have been killed in 2012 by the group, which is fighting to overthrow the government and create an Islamic state in Nigeria's predominantly Muslim north.

UPDATES: OUR MEN LOST 25M TO BOKO HARAM

THE President of Ibadan Foodstuff Sellers Association, Alhaji Musliudeen Olalekan Azeez, a.k.a Energy whose colleagues were murdered at Mungunu area of Borno State, has said that the late traders had on them more than N25 million.

Azeez in a chat with journalists said the money was a contribution from several traders in the market, saying the enormity of the loss is too big to bear.

He said “although, the money is nothing compared to the lives of the promising young men, but we have to put it on record that aside those that died, some people have also been injured investment wise. Even the their relatives could suffer from the fallouts of the huge amount because it is possible that some of them threw in their total capital into the trip. In that case, you can imagine what will be going on in various homes of all that are affected those that lost their loves ones and money.”

It would be recalled that  that 10 members of Bodija  were allegedly killed by the sect members on Friday  June 28.

When Seye Adegboyega, a trader left Ibadan for Maiduguri, Borno State, he was full of dreams and ambition. Aside looking forward to seeing a day when his wife, Anu will have their baby, the 35-year-old trader had promised his immediate younger sister, Opeyemi, to help her realise some of her childhood dreams.

So, when the news of his death was broken to his family members, Opeyemi, in particular, knew that those chats and discussions with her brother had gone up in smoke.
Opeyemi, in a chat with the Nigerian Tribune revealed that she had an appointment with her brother on certain family matters anytime he returned from that trip, but that was not to be.

Opeyemi said “as siblings, we discussed so many issues, especially on areas of him offering assistance to me in my business. The last time we met, he promised me so many things on his return from his trip, but his sudden death did not allow that to come to pass. As his sister, I will miss him because of his position in the family and love for me, his drive to assist with the last drop of his blood. What can I say now that death, especially in this situation did not allow all those promises to come to pass?”

Opeyemi added that Seye had been buried in his house at Amuloko, Ibadan, while his wife, Anu, a fashion designer is currently staying put with family members at their Olorunsogo family house.

On Wednesday, commercial activities at the market was not very active 24 hours after the corpses of the victims were brought home and handed over to their various family members for proper burial.

A market woman who spoke with journalists, Mrs Bola Lawal said “we shut our shops in honour of our late members killed by Boko Haram, we’re in a state of mourning.”
However, armed police personnel were fully present at the market environment and at every corner which according to the market association’s Public Relations Officer (PRO), Mr Akeem Emiola who spoke on behalf of the Chairman of the market union, Mr  Olalekan Azeez, was to forestall a repraisal by Yoruba traders in the market.

Emiola added that the executive members of the market did not order any of the traders  to shut their shops but they were being sympathetic with their members. He also dismissed any possibility of protest, saying “it is not in our plan to carry out any protest.
“We have been working together peacefully until the unfortunate incident. Security at the market is very tight now, we have appealed to our members to maintain peace. It is our responsibility to work and that of the government is to provide security, but they have failed us,” he said.

He pointed out that during the last attack of May 5, the executive committee of the union banned the traders from going to the North but had to lift the ban when the Hausa traders were bringing in their goods from the North. “We then lifted the ban because they were making more money while our people were suffering. This is the third trip after we lifted the ban, see what has happened to our people now.”

Meanwhile, the two survivors, Taoreed Azeez and Ibrahim Ademola, Nigerian Tribune learnt were advised to stay off public view. One of them was reported to have relocated to Lagos State for some time now.

Also, a senior beans merchant whose apprentices were among those murdered, one Alhaji Musa a.k.a 77 Elewa, said “The loss is too much. We are still grieving. What can I say now? My boys were among those who were murdered by the Boko Haram in Borno State. Fatai Kareem and Femi Oyetunde were our people from the market. Whenever we want to go and buy from the north, some of us would gather money and ask a few people to buy for us. That was what happened last week.

UPDATES: OYO NUPENG THREATENS FRESH STRIKE.

The Oyo State chapter of the Nigeria Union of Petroleum and Natural Gas Workers (NUPENG) Wednesday threatened to embark on a fresh strike after the current three days warning strike declared by the national body, if the state government fails to produce the certify copy of the conviction used in prosecuting its members for minor traffic offenses.

Addressing a press conference at the Independent Petroleum Marketers Association of Nigeria (IPMAN) office, Apata, Ibadan, the Deputy National Chairman of the Petrol Tankers Drivers (PTD) Branch of NUPENG, NNPC, Apata, Ibadan, Comrade Salimon Oladiti said though the state government released its member who was arrested  on Tuesday, but that they were not satisfied  unless the government produces the copy of his conviction.

Oladiti wondered why a member of its union would be arrested and prosecuted by the environmental tribunal rather than the police whom he said, had the right to do so.

He said: "We want to know why he was earlier convicted, we are not satisfied with their judgment and may resolve to go on another strike if the state government does not desist from infringing on the fundamental human rights of our members. Why would someone commit a minor traffic offense and will be arrested  and tried by an environmental tribunal?

"Oyo State Government has been blackmailing us that our members are illiterates and that we do not know what we are doing. We are well exposed and majority of our members are learned. We know our right and we will fight for them. Until our roads are safer for our members to ply, we do not have any choice than to leave the road for the state government.

"Imagine a tanker driver that wants to discharge its product at a filling station and you suddenly arrest him illegally, that he has committed an offense. We do not belong to any political party but a union, and the right of our members is very germane in our heart because we are the voice of the voiceless, and we shall protect their interest always."

He urged its members in the state to be fully alerted for his directive on when to embark on strike.

Narrating his ordeal, Mr Olaoluwa Olasunkanmi, the petrol tanker driver in question, who was released  Wednesday after spending five days at the Agodi Prison following his inability to pay N250,000 fine, told reporters that he was arrested illegally by the state sanitation officers for committing minor traffic offense.

"I was arraigned at the environment tribunal and was giving the option of N250,000 or two months imprisonment, but when none of my family members showed up to pay the bail, I was transferred to gbagi police station before been transferred the next day to Agodi prison," he said

BREAKING NEWS: EGYPTIAN ARMY OUTS PRESIDENT MORSI FROM POWER

 

Fresh presidential and parliamentary elections have been announced in Egypt amid reports that Mohamed Morsi has been told he is no longer in charge of the country.

Egypt's state-run Al-Ahram newspaper reported on its website that the army told Mr Mursi at 7pm (6pm  UK time) that he was no longer head of state, quoting a presidential source. More to follow

UPDATES: BODIES OF 10 SLAUGHTERED IBADAN FOOD DEALERS ARRIVE FROM BORNO

 

THE grim import of the murder of 10 Ibadan food dealers by the Boko Haram sect was felt yesterday in the Oyo State capital.

Women were crying as the bodies were offloaded from a truck. Men were shaking their heads in deep dejection as the caskets were lined up in a row at the Bodija market.

The traders, who were beans sellers, went to Borno State — the heart of the sect’s insurgency— to buy beans for sale in Ibadan when they ran into an ambush by the deadly sect members. They were killed in a most gruesome manner.

A survivor of the attack, Taoheed Adewuyi, 32, recounted the chilling moments of the attack, in the early hours of Friday in Munguno, Borno State. They left Ibadan on Thursday.

He said: “God saved me from the attack. They stopped us along the way and asked us to come down from the vehicle and lie down. They thereafter started shooting us one after the other as we lay on the ground. I was the third on the row. I was shot but the bullet did not hit me very well. I was gone. It was after an hour that I discovered that I was still alive.”

Asked how he was so sure that the attackers were Boko Haram members, he said: “When they discovered that one of the victims was still breathing, one of the attackers went into their car pulled a knife with which he ‘slaughtered’ him. I almost cried out at that time but I could not do so.

Our man who was slaughtered was Ninalowo (a.k.a AY).

“I’m sure they were Boko Haram members”.

The bodies were received at the Ibadan/Egbeda toll gate, amidst tight security, by a delegation of over 1000 traders and sympathisers, led by the Babaloja of Oyo State, Chief Dauda Adisa Oladapo. The dead are: Seye Adegboyega, Jelili Popoola, Ojo Mosobalaje, Fatai Kareem and Femi Oyetunde.

The other are: Ninalowo Saheed, Saburu Lanlehin , Lekan Oladokun, Sola Adeoye and Nurudeen Lawal. Bodija Market Union spokesman, Akeem Emiola gave the list of the victims.

Security was tight as the bodies were brought into the ancient city at about 3.30pm in two white Fiat buses marked Lagos GGE 96 XD and Abuja AA317 RBC.

Security was tight at the scene. There were 12 police patrol vans, one Armoured Personnel Carrier (APC) and police trucks were deployed to forestall crisis.

It was gathered that majority of the victims were mainly apprentices in the business.

Two of the traders, Ibrahim Ademola and Taoheed Azeez Adewuyi, escaped narrowly.

Emiola said he could not confirm that 25 people were killed as being speculated in some quarters. “We cannot confirm that. What we know is that 10 of our people were killed; may be it’s true that 25 people were killed, we don’t know.”

As the brown caskets were being brought out of the vehicles, the traders, families and sympathisers who had waited hours wept uncontrollably. They lamented the havoc Boko Haram had created for the family of the victims.

Four other traders were allegedly killed by the sect on May 5. Shops and stalls were firmly shut at the market yesterday. The market and its environs wore a gloomy mood.

Oladapo urged the Federal Government, which has declared a state of emergency in Yobe, Borno and Adamawa, to take drastic measures against the Boko Haram insurgency.

“Is it after they have killed all of us that the government will act? Many of us have been killed,” he lamented.

Oladapo said the death of the traders would lead to scarcity of beans in the market, adding that most of the traders are no longer willing to travel to the North.

At the scene, Oyo State Commissioner for Trade and Investment Mr Adebayo Olagbenro Kareem said: condemned the killings, saying the government would address the crisis.
He prayed for the repose of the deceased and urged their families to take it as the will of God.

Fatai Kareem, a brother to one of the victims, said they were
calling his younger brother’s phone number but he did not pick it up while on the trip. Unknown to them, he had been killed.

“Our mother died just last year and we are still mourning her. Now it is our brother. He was the youngest of the six children of our parents. We cannot tell the members of our family about his death because it is going to be very devastating.

“I did not know that the day he was traveling to buy beans will be the last day I would see him. Boko Haram men have done their worst and I know God will judge them accordingly.”

Abiala Emmanuel, a friend to one of the victims, said the late Sola Adeoye was preparing for his brother’s marriage next week.

“We were friends for over three years. He was a cool person who could not hurt a fly. He was kind and generous towards his parents. I learnt they used machetes to cut him and that his body was not found,” Emmanuel said.

Emmanuel, who was wailing, recalled that it was the second time the deadly sect has killed traders from the market.

The head of the Hausa community in Bodija market Alhaji Isiyaka Hassan, called on the government to provide adequate security in the community.

The Hausa community in the market also gathered to mourn the slain traders.

The Sarkin Hausawa, who spoke in Yoruba, said what happened to the traders was disheartening.

He said: “It is disturbing because it is beyond our powers and disheartening because of the innocent souls that were killed without any just cause.”

He called for adequate security in the market for fear of reprisal from angry traders against Northerners.

Hassan prayed God to rescue Nigerian from the hands of evil men who kill under the guise of religion.

He recalled that the traders in the popular Bodija were brothers and sisters, who have been living in peaceful for decades, irrespective of tribe or religion.

“We are brothers and sisters here without any quarrel. We share things together and we don’t have any cause to disagree. It is the evil people who are planning to a division among us, but Isha Allah they shall not succeed “, Hassan said. Those in the neighborhood expressed fear that the traders could become violent.

A banker, who simply gave her name as Tonia, said: “We expect
the security agencies to be on standby to curtail violent reaction
from the traders who are in a tense mood because of the tragic news.”

A woman trader, Mrs. Titi Odejayi, urged the government to ensure protection of lives and property. She said: “We warned our people to stop going to the place (North) until peace is restored. How can you risk being killed because of means of survival?

“The government should seek a lasting solution to the issue of
Boko Haram.”

Another trader, Mutiu Jamiu, who linked the surge in food stuff to insecurity in the North, said: “The situation in the North demands urgent attention before it spreads to other parts. Already, we are experiencing the pain of the trouble.”

FUEL SCARCITY HITS IBADAN

 

Petrol stations in IBADAN, Nigeria’s largest city have been shut down following the directive by the Nigeria Union of Petroleum and Natural Gas (NUPENG) workers.

NUPENG started a three-day warning strike on Monday over alleged unfair labour practices by oil multinationals and the poor state of road network across the country.

The union is protesting the alleged refusal of the National Association of Road Transport Owners to implement the signed collective bargaining agreement with the petroleum tanker drivers, the poor state of roads across the nation and the ill-treatment of their members by some oil companies.

BOKO HARAM SLAUGHTERED 10 IBADAN FOOD DEALERS IN BORNO

 

LESS than two months after four members of Ibadan Foodstuff Sellers Association were killed by gunmen in Borno State, 10 traders were allegedly killed by gunmen suspected to be members of Islamic sect on Friday.
This is just as the president of the association, Alhaji Musliudeen Olalekan Azeez, called on the Federal Government to save their members from incessant attacks.
Azeez, speaking with journalists at the Bodija Market, on Monday, said they learnt that their members, 10 of them, were among the over 60 people killed by people suspected to be members of the Islamic sect.

Eight of those allegedly killed were said to be traders at Bodija Market, while two others were from Orita-merin Market, also in Ibadan.
Azeez informed that the executive member of the association had ensured that some shops were under lock and key in Bodija Market, as they mourned the killing of their members.
Acording to him, majority of the victims were beans seller and they had gone to Borno State to purchase the food items before they were killed at Mugunu area of Borno State.
It will be recalled that four members of Bodija had been allegedly killed on May 5, 2013.
Confirming the report, the Public Relations Officer (PRO) of the market, Mr Akeem Emiola, said the sad news was relayed to them on Friday through a telephone conversation by one of their customers, adding that “since then, we have been making contact with the families of the deceased.”
He gave the names of those killed as Seye Adegboyega, Jelili Popoola, Ojo Mosobalaje, Fatai Kareem and Femi Oyetunde.
Others, according to him, are Ninalowo Saheed, Saburu Lanlehin, Lekan Oladokun, Sola Adeoye and Nurudeen Lawal.
He said two of the traders, Alhaji Ibrahim Ademola and Taoheed Azeez, narrowly escaped death.
Emiola disclosed that their corpses would be received tomorrow by the executive members at the Oyo end of the Ibadan/Ilorin Road.

GOOD NEWS IN IBADAN – HURRAY!!!

 

EIGHT patients with serious heart problems were operated upon at the University College Hospital (UCH), Ibadan by a team of medical experts from the Tristate Cardiovascular Institute, Delaware, United States on Friday.

UCH’s Chief Medical Director, Professor Temitope Alonge, speaking on the heart operation which was the first of its kind in a government hospital, said, “For the first time, we now have the ability to provide cardiac catheterisation for patients who have problems with their heart. This is with the intention of trying to prevent heart attack.

He added, “Cardiac catheterisation will also help to monitor those who have hypertensive heart disorders to monitor the progress of their treatment.”

Professor Alonge who noted that operating the Cathlab was a challenge before now, stated that “cardiac catheterisation is a prelude to what is called open heart surgery.”

According to him, “most people with heart problems will probably not require an open heart surgery. In a case where an open heart surgery is necessary, we already have facilities in place that will be used to take over heart function while the heart is opened for correction.”

Professor Alonge, who remarked that open heart surgery was going to be more prevalent in children, declared that “majority would not require open heart surgery if they are detected early and a stent is put in the narrowed part of the blood vessels to maintain blood flow to the heart.”

The team leader of the Tri-state Cardiovascular Institute, Dr Kammar Adeleke, who was full of praises for the huge investment made on the state-of-the-art Cathlab, said “this is a test run to see if the machine is working. It is perfect and you cannot have anything better than this worldwide.”

Although, the team initially planned to consider six cases but later increased it to eight because of the large number of patients with heart problems. Dr Adeleke stated that “these were cases that would have required open heart surgery. But using this non-invasive procedure, they will be up in bed in two hours and can even go home that day.”

The expert, however, berated people travelling abroad for medical treatment, saying that “for Nigerians to be going abroad for medical procedures, I do not care what it is, it is just not right.

“It is about time that we reversed that. We have what it takes and under the leadership of people like Professor Alonge who know Nigerians in Diaspora, we can get things done. That is our goal.”