WE SPEAK

Real Madrid needs to score early, play smart, says Zidane

2018-05-01T02:30:00.000-07:00

Real Madrid manager, Zinedine Zidane was very clear in explaining what he wants from his team in today’s second-leg clash with Bayern Munich: score early and play smart.

He said, “The key for us it to go out to win the game. No need to take chances, to play on the back foot, nor to do anything strange. We’ve got to go out and get an early goal. It’s a semifinal and we know the importance of the game. We know what we have to do.”

“We don’t have to change anything regarding what we’ve been doing. We have to be focused and determined. We know we’re playing the second leg and that we did very well in the first leg, but now we have to show that we want to get through.”

Zidane admits that it is a fantastic feeeling to play another semifinal and fight to get to the final, adding, “The only thing we’re thinking about is going out and giving everything to make it to the final. It’s what drives us all on, the fans, the club, the team want to give everything to get to”

“They’ve trained with us and now we have a bit of time to think about what we’re going to do. The important thing is that the players are 100 per cent.”

He believes Bayern would be preapared to give Madrid a good fight, adding, “they’re a great club and we’re aware of that. We have to be prepared as
always, putting in a big performance. I have no doubt that the opponents will come here without any complexes and have a great game.”

Huddersfield ready to sign Leon Balogun on free deal

2018-05-01T02:26:00.001-07:00

Huddersfield is ready to sign Germany-based Super Eagles’ defender, Leon Balogun from Mainz in its first swoop for next season, reports thesun.co.uk.

Balogun, 29, is a free agent at the end of his contract and is set to join the Terriers after having talks over the move.

The Berlin-born defender plays centre half but can also turn out at full back and would join the German colony at the club.

Meanwhile, coach David Wagner’s future is still uncertain but owner, Dean Hoyle is pressing on with his bid to get him to sign a new deal. And Hoyle will also look to appoint a German sport director.

Erik Stoffelshaus from Lokomotiv Moscow is top of their wish list.

Hoyle is a big fan of how Germans run their clubs and Wagner’s performance has only enhanced that opinion.

Cenk Tosun and Idrissa Gueye struck to leave Huddersfield sweating on a tough run-in.

They face champions Manchester City, plus Chelsea and Arsenal.

Meeting with Trump yields results – Buhari

2018-05-01T02:19:00.003-07:00

President Muhammadu Buhari said his meeting with U.S. President Donald Trump yielded positive results in areas of the economy, security and anti-corruption.

Buhari, announced this during a joint press conference by Buhari and Trump after a one-day official working visit to the White House.

The Nigerian president lauded the shared history of close and cordial relations between the two countries , saying it encompasses political, economic, military, social and cultural cooperation.

He said: “Our two countries maintain a strategic partnership for peace and security, conflict resolution as well as the global fight against terrorism.

“We also share common features as secular federal states, practicing a similar democratic model of governance and committed to the universal values of fundamental human rights and freedoms, free enterprise, social justice and the rule of law.

“President Trump and his team and myself and the Nigerian team discussed issues related to security, trade, governance, human rights and humanitarian crises.”

“We expressed gratitude for U. S. support in the reconstruction and rehabilitation efforts in the North East of Nigeria, as well as humanitarian assistance to the Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs), through agencies such as the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) and other international partners.

“The USA has been to date the biggest contributor to the humanitarian response and last year gave approximately 500 million U.S. Dollars in cash and in-kind contributions through the United Nations and other inter-governmental organisations.

“These have mainly supported protection activities, health, food assistance and shelter. We are doing all we can to secure the release of the remaining abducted school girls from Dapchi and Chibok.

“In this context, we will continue to welcome U.S. collaboration in intelligence gathering, hostage negotiations and information-sharing,” Buhari said.

On violent attacks by herdsmen, Buhari said the government was taking necessary steps to promote the peaceful co-existence of herdsmen and farmers, by focusing on boosting security and enforcing legislation that will guarantee herders and farmers access to land.

On economy, he said Nigeria very much welcomed increased US investment in the Nigerian economy, especially in the non-oil sector.

Buhari said: “Nigeria’s trade volume with the United States stood at 6.07 billion dollars, according to 2016 statistics and comprised 4.176 billion dollars worth of Nigerian exports to the U.S. and 1.894 billion dollars U.S. exports to Nigeria. We urged greater effort to increase these figures substantially.”

He thanked the U.S. government for the cooperation Nigeria had received in its effort to recover stolen funds.

“Our two governments have put the machinery in place for their respective Attorneys-General to collaborate in ensuring the return to Nigeria of over 500 million dollars of looted funds siphoned away in banks around the world.

“In this connection, we congratulated the US government on launching a Kleptocracy Asset Recovery Initiative which was spearheaded by the U.S. Department of Justice Asset Forfeiture and Money Laundering.

“We hope that we could continue to count on U.S. support in this area,” he said.

Trump thumbs up Buhari’s fight against ‘massive corruption’

2018-05-01T02:16:00.002-07:00

The US president Donald Trump Monday said Nigeria has a reputation for “very massive corruption” but insisted that President Buhari’s fight against graft in Africa’s most populous country is commendable.

Both men were addressing a joint press conference after bilateral talks held at the White House.

“Nigeria has a reputation for very massive corruption. I also know that the President has been able to cut that down very substantially,” Trump said.

“We talked about that, he is working on it and they have made a lot of progress and I think they will continue to make a lot of progress.”

The American president said it was in the best interest of his country and American businesses present in Nigeria that Buhari’s anti-graft war succeeds.

Trump said, “We have a lot of people in this country that invests in Nigeria, so cutting down on that corruption element and a corrupt element is very important to us and the President will be able to do that.”

Apart from improved trade relations, Buhari is seeking support in the battle against Boko Haram extremists, who for nine years have attacked cities and towns in the country’s northeast, killing more than 20,000 people in a bloody quest to establish an Islamist state.

But Trump said he is also focused on the killings of Christians in Nigeria.

“We’ve had serious problems with Christians who have been murdered, killed,” Trump said, an apparent reference to the attack on April 24 on a church in central Nigeria, where 18 people, including two priests, were murdered.

“We’re going to work on that problem and working on that problem very, very hard,” Trump said

Killing of Christians in Nigeria is unacceptable, says Trump

2018-05-01T02:11:00.001-07:00

Killing of Christians in Nigeria is unacceptable, says Trump

United States President Donald Trump has read what might be described as a riot act to the Nigerian government, saying the continued killing of Christians in the country is unacceptable.

He said this, yesterday, when he received President Muhammadu Buhari at the White House for talks aimed at boosting the strategic partnership between both countries.

This came as the Christian Association of Nigerian (CAN) called for the immediate resignation of Buhari over his alleged inability to tackle killer herdsmen and other security challenges. The association also urged the international community to save Nigeria from a religious crisis, describing the recent attack on a church in Benue State as a jihad.Pope Francis had on Sunday, during his remarks at St. Peter’s Square, Vatican City, decried the attack in which Fulani herdsmen allegedly killed two Catholic priests and 17 worshippers. ‎

Expressing concern over the killing of Christians by Boko Haram, Trump said America would do everything to halt terrorist activities in Nigeria.

“We have met before, developing great relationship. We look forward to our discussions today. They are very important, but again, especially as it relates to terrorism. That is terrorism here and terrorism all over the world. It’s a hot bed and we are going to be stopping them.

The U.S. President said his country would invest substantially in Nigeria, if Buhari creates a level-playing field by removing barriers to trade between the countries.

Acknowledging that Nigeria is one of America’s largest trading partners in the region, he disclosed that the U.S. provides it with more than $1 billion a year in foreign aid and wants Nigeria to take down trade barriers in return. According to him, “We think that we are owed that.”

He said: “Nigeria has a reputation for very massive corruption. I also know that the President (Buhari) has been able to cut that down very substantially. We talked about that. He is working on it and they have made a lot of progress, and I think they will continue to make a lot of progress.”

On tackling insecurity, Trump noted: “We’re helping Nigeria by facilitating intelligence cooperation and providing military training and equipment. We recently sold Nigeria 12 Super Tucano aircraft in the first-ever sale of American military equipment to Nigeria. Nigeria is a valued partner and a good friend.”

Responding, Buhari acknowledged the deteriorating insecurity in Nigeria and expressed appreciation for U.S. assistance in military training to curb terrorism in the northeast.

He said: ‎”Certainly, security is the main issue. We are very grateful to the United States for agreeing to give us the aircraft we asked and the spare parts.

We are even more grateful for the physical presence of the United States military instructors that go into our institutions and train them, and go to the front in the northeast, to see how they are performing as a result of the training given to them.”

On the clashes between herders and farmers in Nigeria, Buhari said: “The Nigerian herdsman never carried anything more than a stick and occasionally a machete, to cut down foliage and give to their animals.

These ones are carrying AK 47. So, I don’t think people should underrate what happened in Libya, 43 years of Gadaffi. People were recruited from the Sahel.

They were taught nothing other than shoot and kill. With the demise of Gadaffi, they moved to their countries and their regions and they carried away with them, the only experience they have and training using weapons. And that is what is aggravating the situation.”

He said: “We are doing our best to ensure that we stop cross border (crime) and so on, and to get the proliferation of small arms in the region checked. But it is going to take time.

And the action by the United States in trying to see the end of ISIS has helped us a lot, because Boko Haram in Nigeria, at one time, made a statement that they were loyal to ISIS.

And now that ISIS has virtually gone, with the help of the United States, we are very grateful for that. And we are sure that we are stabilising the situation of security in Nigeria.”

On what his government is doing to rescue the girls still being held by Boko Haram, Buhari said: ‎‎”The Chibok girls was before we came in 2014. We have only a number of them. We recovered about 30 of them. But the Dapchi ones, they were 106 that were kidnapped.

We got 100 back, four died. One is still held in captivity, and we are very grateful for the United Nations that is acting between the kidnappers and us and haven’t given up. We are trying to get everybody back to join their families and their schools.”

The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), meanwhile, has charged Buhari to explain to Nigerians how his administration spent the $1billion grant from the United States. It also expressed shock that Buhari admitted the receipt of only $500million and failed to say what became of the money.

In a statement, yesterday, the party’s Publicity Secretary, Kola Ologbondiyan, said: “More disturbing is the revelation by President Trump that the U.S. has been supporting Nigeria with the sum of $1bn annually, whereas President Buhari, in his script, announced that Nigeria received only $500m last year.”

The PDP said: “We had expected President Buhari, as the ‘African Champion on Anti-Corruption’, to immediately respond to President Trump on the whereabouts of the shortfall of $500m.”

It described Buhari’s performance as embarrassing for “completely failing to project the economic interests of our nation before the American government and the world.”

It said: “It was alarming that President Buhari buckled in bilateral negotiation and failed to address the issue of drop in the U.S. purchase of our crude oil, which is the mainstay of our economy.

Nigerians and the business community were aghast when Buhari could not market our crude oil to his American counterpart, even when in the course of the question and answer session, a leeway was provided for him, he off-handedly declared that he could not ‘tell America what to do.’”

The PDP added it was inexcusable that Buhari had no answers to daily bloodletting and mass killings in Nigeria, which Trump described as “horrible”. Instead, he restricted himself to his script, which was silent on the issue.

“By this, the American government has summarily indicted President Buhari’s government for its failure to ensure security of life and property of citizens.”

ANIMATION

2018-04-28T03:46:00.000-07:00

Salah threatens Messi, Ronaldo Ballon d’Or stranglehold

2018-04-28T02:51:00.001-07:00

Salah threatens Messi, Ronaldo Ballon d’Or stranglehold

Mohamed Salah could be the man to finally break the Ronaldo-Messi duopoly at the top of world football after the Liverpool forward burnished his soaring reputation with a mesmerising Champions League performance against Roma.

Real Madrid’s Cristiano Ronaldo and Barcelona’s Lionel Messi have locked down the Ballon d’Or award for a decade, winning five gongs apiece — for the past seven years they have occupied the top two slots.

But Salah is now second favourite with many bookmakers behind Ronaldo for this year’s award after scoring his 42nd and 43rd goals of the season in a thrilling 5-2 victory for Liverpool in the Champions League semi-final first leg.

After his first strike against his former club on Tuesday, the man dubbed by fans as the “Egyptian King” stood motionless, hands raised in apology, as bedlam broke out on a night for the ages at Anfield.

Salah’s curling effort arrowed into the top corner with such accuracy his manager Jurgen Klopp labelled it “a genius strike”.

Soon after came the forward’s signature finish, a cute dink over advancing Roma goalkeeper Alisson for his 43rd goal in 47 games for Liverpool.

When Salah, 25, made the move from the Italian capital back to the Premier League just 10 months ago for 42 million euros (£37 million, $51 million), there were plenty who felt Roma had got the better deal. Salah after all was a talented player, but who often lacked an end product.

It also came just a few weeks before Neymar’s move from Barcelona to Paris Saint-Germain for a world record 222 million euros revolutionised the transfer market.

The Brazilian’s desire to leave the Catalan giants was tied to his ambition to beat Messi and Ronaldo to the Ballon d’Or by stepping out of Messi’s shadow.

Now, though, it is Salah who has emerged as the pretender to end the Messi-Ronaldo domination by not only scoring the quantity of goals that have become the pair’s trademark but doing it when it really matters, in the latter stages of the Champions League.

“If you think he is the best in the world, write it or say it,” urged Klopp, who has been credited with bringing out Salah’s previously untapped potential.

“To be the best in the world you need to do that over a longer period I think, and there are a few others that are not so bad.”

Heavily left-footed, small, speedy and with a low centre of gravity, Salah’s characteristics are far more like those of Messi than the muscular goal-machine Ronaldo.

“In a certain light, at certain points, it is possible to glimpse in Salah a little of Messi’s afterglow,” wrote Rory Smith in the New York Times.

– Messi-like –
And he demonstrated another Messi-like quality in showing no mercy to Roma.

Chasing his first hat-trick in the Champions League, Salah would have been forgiven for going for goal as he bore down on Alisson once more after half-time.

But he showed why he is considered one of the game’s more unselfish superstars by instead creating another two goals for strike partners Sadio Mane and Roberto Firmino.

When Salah left the field to a standing ovation 15 minutes from time, Liverpool led 5-0.

“Unstoppable (when Salah’s on the pitch),” said the back page of The Times.

Two late Roma away goals have at least given the Italians hope of recreating the incredible comeback they staged from a 4-1 first-leg deficit against Barca in the quarter-finals.

For once it is Salah’s turn to lead the way where Messi faltered on his return to the Eternal City next week.

Messi is almost certain to win a La Liga and Copa del Rey double and Ronaldo could lead Real Madrid to a third consecutive Champions League after another bucketload of goals this season.

But Salah is the coming man and after bagging the African and English players’ player of the year crowns, it is hard to back against him also conquering the world.

PSG coach Emery says will leave at the end of the season

2018-04-28T02:47:00.000-07:00

PSG coach Emery says will leave at the end of the season

rsy

5 hours ago

Paris Saint-Germain’s Spanish headcoach Unai Emery is pictured before the French cup semi-final match between Caen (SMC) and Paris Saint-Germain (PSG) on April 18, 2018 at the Michel-d’Ornano stadium in Caen, northwestern France. / AFP PHOTO / CHARLY TRIBALLEAU

Paris Saint-Germain coach Unai Emery said Friday he will leave the French club at the end of the campaign after Champions League failures in both his seasons in charge.

Emery, whose contract ends in June, said he met with PSG president Nasser Al-Khelaifi and sporting director Antero Henrique and “we decided that we would not continue to work together”.

“I’ve told the players,” Emery said at a press conference on Friday ahead of the league match against Guingamp on Sunday.

The Spaniard arrived having achieved continental success, winning the Europa League three times with Sevilla.

Despite spending 400 million euros ($483 million) on Neymar and Kylian Mbappe alone — the two most expensive transfer deals in history — last summer, PSG were eliminated in the last 16 of the Champions League for a second straight year.

Those defeats to Barcelona, last season, and Real Madrid, this time, suggested that Qatari-backed PSG were not closing the gap on Europe’s elite.

Under Emery, PSG lost their French title to Monaco, before regaining it this season. The club won the French League Cup both seasons. They took the French Cup in 2017 and are back in the final this year where they face third division Les Herbiers on May 8.

The German Thomas Tuchel, without a club since his tumultuous departure from Borussia Dortmund in May 2017, is seen as the favourite to succeed Emery by French sports media.

“I’m going to see what’s best for my future,” Emery said. “I’m very focused for Sunday (and Guingamp) and the final of the French Cup, after which I will see.”

Asked if he would give advice to his successor, Emery said: Of course, if he needs something, I can help and give him my opinion. I can help if needed.”

Knife attacker kills nine children

2018-04-28T02:42:00.000-07:00

A knife-wielding man with a grudge killed nine middle school children and injured at least 10 others as they returned home in northern China on Friday, authorities said, in one of the deadliest such rampages in the country in recent years.

The 28-year-old suspect was detained and the injured children were receiving hospital treatment, the Mizhi County public security bureau in Shaanxi province said on its official social media account.

Seven girls and two boys were killed, the official Xinhua news agency said, citing local police. The ages of the children were not given, but middle schoolers are usually between 12 and 15 years old in China.

The incident took place at around 6:10 pm local time, the department said.

A man surnamed Zhao from Zhaojiashan village in Mizhi County was arrested, the public security bureau said.

The suspect confessed that he had been “bullied” when he attended the same Number Three Middle School when he was a child, “hated” his classmates and decided to use a “dagger” to kill people on Friday, the bureau said.

A video posted by The Paper, a daily, on video-sharing website Miaopai.com shows two or three bodies lying on the ground in a narrow lane. A person is heard shouting “hurry, call the police!” Police are seen running and later frogmarching a man down the street.

AFP could not immediately verify the authenticity of the video.

Knife attacks are not uncommon in the country.

In February, a knife-wielding man with a personal grudge killed a woman and injured 12 others in a busy Beijing shopping mall — a rare act of violence in the heavily policed capital.

Herdsmen killings: CAN mobilises churches for nationwide protests Sunday

2018-04-28T02:39:00.001-07:00

CAN President, Dr. Samson Supo Ayokunle

Adelani Adepegba, Samuel Awoyinfa, Olufemi Atoyebi, Kamarudeen Ogundele, Femi Makinde, Success Nwogu, Mudiaga Affe, Gbenro Adeoye, Peter Dada, Armstrong Bakam, Gbenga Odogun, Theophilus Onojeghen, John Charles, Clement Nnachi, and Justin Tyopuusu

The Christian Association of Nigeria has embarked on a massive mobilisation of churches across the federation for peaceful protests on Sunday against incessant killings by suspected Fulani herdsmen in the country.

It was learnt that the association had sought the support of prominent clerics as well as the endorsement of influential Christians to make the exercise a success.

The Special Assistant (Media & Communications) to the CAN President, Pastor Bayo Oladeji, confirmed to Saturday PUNCH on Friday that all was set for the protests against the killings of Christians as well as other Nigerians across the country.

The CAN President, Rev. Olasupo Ayokunle, had in a statement on Wednesday, urged Christians to hold peaceful protests within their church premises on April 29.

He made the call against the backdrop of the Tuesday killing of two priests and 17 worshippers at St. Ignatius Catholic Church, Mbalom , Gwer East Local Government Area of Benue State. Hundreds of persons have been killed by suspected Fulani herdsmen across the country this year alone, especially in Benue and Taraba states.

He said, “CAN urges Christians in Nigeria to hold peaceful protests on the set-aside date, in the premises of their churches, asking the Federal Government and the security agencies to stop the unending killings and bloodshed in the country.

“Christians are to carry placards with inscriptions meant to address issues about sustained killings, attacks and destruction of their property in Nigeria. The inscriptions on placards could read, ‘Enough of bloodshed in Nigeria,’ ‘Enough of unlawful killings in the country’, ‘FG, release Leah Sharibu from bondage,’ ‘FG, stop herdsmen killings,’ and ‘CAN rejects FG’s poor handling of insecurity.’”

The statement blamed the continued killings on the failure of the government to mount an effective campaign against the killings by suspected herdsmen, noting that there was no visible plan to pacify the aggrieved persons.

Speaking to one of our correspondents in Abuja on Friday, the CAN spokesman stated that all chapters of CAN had been informed of the planned protests, noting that these chapters would send the message to all the churches in their domain.

When asked if CAN would apply for a police permit for the protest, the cleric responded that the church did not need a permit.He said, “We have informed every chapter of CAN; we have sent messages to church leaders. We have to make our impact felt. We cannot force anybody to do it, but they all know the position of CAN .”

“Do I need a police permit to stand in front of my church and say this is my position? Do you need a police permit to address a press conference? A court has ruled that for every peaceful protest, you don’t need a police permit. The highest court in the land also affirmed it. You don’t need a police permit to stage a peaceful protest; we have freedom of assembly and association,” he said.

Oladeji expressed confidence that the protest would be successful, noting that even if only a few churches participated, the Christian faithful would have sent a message to the world that they were not pleased with the situation in the country.

CAN has also described the President as being more interested in re-election than in the protection of lives and well-being of Nigerians, noting that the President did not care about the number of citizens that may end up as sacrificial lambs for his ambition.

Speaking to journalists at a news conference in Abuja on Friday, the General-Secretary of CAN, Rev. Musa Asake, catalogued the killings and bloodshed across the country, noting that the Buhari-led administration had returned the nation to the Dark Age.

“War seems to be looming in Nigeria while the aggressors are no other than misguided individuals who had been armed to provoke different communities into needless battles.

“Yet, President Buhari, who was popularly elected in 2015, has not seen the need and urgency to issue a presidential order on the need to halt the killings and with stern instruction to heads of security operatives to bring perpetrators to book.

“The Dark Age has come with the administration of President Buhari in Nigeria, (which) is giving the Christians in this country a huge concern.

“All the same, Mr. President has his own interests, the most imprtant of which is to seek re-election to remain in power beyond 2019 and continue with the reign of terror in Nigeria. It does not matter how many Nigerians will end up as sacrificial lambs on that single ambition.”

Meanwhile, the Benue State chapter of CAN has said that Christians in the state are set to comply with the directive of the national leadership of the organisation.

The state CAN chairman, Rev. Akpen Leva, further said that after the protest on Sunday, there would be seven days of prayer and fast, to commence on Monday.

He further said that the directive would be communicated to the local churches in Benue latest by Saturday (today).

Taraba CAN chapter orders Christians to dress in black

The Taraba State chapter of the CAN has directed all Christians in the state to dress in black during their protests on Sunday.

Following an emergency meeting over the directive given by Ayokunle, the state chapter called on all Christians in the state to converge on the CAN Secretariat in Jalingo on Sunday by 3:00 pm for the peaceful protest and to come in black attire.

Taraba State Treasurer of CAN , Very Rev. Fr. James Vontih, told Saturday PUNCHthat the state chapter of CAN had decided to hold a joint protest, believing it would create more impact.

“Instead of having the protest in individual churches, we have decided that all Christians in the state should converge on the CAN auditorium in Jalingo for a peaceful protest.

ABOUT US

2018-04-28T02:19:00.004-07:00

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