Cybercriminals targeted Manchester United’s IT systems in a “sophisticated” hacking operation, the club said.
“The club has taken swift action to contain the attack and is currently working with expert advisers to investigate the incident and minimise the ongoing IT disruption,” it said in a statement late Friday.
All “critical systems” required for games to take place at Old Trafford were secure, the statement said, adding Saturday’s game against West Bromwich Albion would go ahead as planned.
“We are not currently aware of any breach of personal data associated with our fans and customers,” it added.
“These type of attacks are becoming more and more common and are something you have to rehearse for,” a spokesman for the club told the PA news agency.
United are languishing in 14th in the Premier League table and a fine start to their Champions League campaign took a knock with a 2-1 defeat to Istanbul Basaksehir.
Gunmen have killed former Rivers State Chairman of the Nigeria Union of Petroleum and Natural Gas Workers, Ebenezer Kalabo Amah, the state police have confirmed.
Amah was kidnapped by the gunmen and killed shortly afterwards.
Spokesperson for the police in the state, Nnamdi Omoni, who confirmed the incident, said the deceased’s vehicle was recovered the same day while his body was seen at Peter Odili Road on Thursday, a report by PUNCH said.
Omoni said, “Yes I can confirm. He was kidnapped in Woji on the 17th. That same day, the police recovered his vehicle. While we were searching for him, we got information that his body was dumped somewhere at Peter Odili Road.
“So the following day on the 18th, we got there and confirmed that he was the same person that was kidnapped the previous day. His body was evacuated and taken to the hospital mortuary for preservation.
“The vehicle is in our custody. The investigation has commenced into the incident to ensure that the suspects behind the dastardly act are apprehended.”
Deputy National Chairman of the Trade Union Congress, Chika Onuegbu, while commenting said, “ETK Amah was a very good comrade who radiated joy everywhere he went. So sad. May his soul rest in peace.”
Amah was kidnapped by gunmen, who trailed him to his residence along Precious Chukwu Street in Woji, Obio/Akpor Local Government Area of the state, while he was driving into his house on Wednesday night.
Veteran musician, Charles Oputa, aka Charly Oputa, and his daughter, Dewy, apparently don’t see eye-to-eye on certain issues.
On Friday, the ‘Fake Pastor’ singer took to his Instagram page to state that he experienced a wide range of emotions when Dewy first came out to him that she was homosexual. He stated that though he often advocated for the rights of ‘queer’ people, he was initially taken aback.
He went on to say that he finally came to terms with it and is proud of his daughter. His post read in part, “As a matter of fact, I now look back and find that I am grateful for the experience of having a gay (lesbian) child. All I want for my princess are love, happiness and success.
Charly Boy’s post generated a lot of comments, with many commending him for loving his daughter unconditionally.
However, hours after his post, his daughter called him out on Twitter, claiming that her father no longer picked her calls. She wrote, “’Gaslighting’ at its finest. It is quite unfortunate that my life is nothing but content. I just cannot wrap my head around the hypocrisy. All this for a drop of clout, attention and praise from strangers just to feed your ego.
“Honestly, I was going to just ‘free’ this situation because I’m used to this toxicity and mentally I’m tired. But after seeing this, I cannot stomach this pretentious behaviour anymore because normally, this man does not pick my calls.”
She continued, “In 2017, I got kicked out of the house and was almost homeless. But for my friend, I wouldn’t have had food or shelter.
“Fortunately for me, I had a return ticket to Atlanta (United States of America), I moved back here with zero dollars not even knowing where I was going to live or where my next meal was going to come from.
“I was literally living from couch to couch and Lord knows how tirelessly I worked so I could have my own stability.
“You did not even know if your daughter was dead or alive. Anything could have happened to me.”
Efforts made to speak with Charly Boy proved abortive. He did not respond to calls made to his phone.
The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) has charged President Muhammadu Buhari to set up an independent national truth commission on the reported killing of peaceful protesters by security agencies and alleged recruiting of hoodlums by agents of government to disrupt the demonstration by Nigerian youths against Police brutality in the country.
The PDP faulted the idea of pushing the responsibility of enquiry to the states, despite widespread allegations of involvement of federal government interests in the crime against humanity in Nigeria.
Its National Publicity Secretary, Kola Ologbondiya, in a statement, said PDP’s call was predicated on the failure of the administration to come clean on the involvement of the military in the Lekki Toll Gate shooting and recruiting of hoodlums to attack peaceful protesters in Abuja and other parts of the country.
Accordingly to the party: “Nigerians remain alarmed by the contradicting claims by government on the Lekki killing. It is recalled that in its first reaction, the military denied deploying troops to Lekki Toll Gate.
“This denial was followed by a strange claim by the Attorney General of the Federation (AGF) and Minister of Justice, Abubakar Malami, who pointed accusing fingers to faceless hoodlums in military uniform as being responsible for the killing, only for the military to later inform the Lagos enquiry panel that the military was invited to the Lekki Toll Gate by Governor Babajide Sanwo-Olu.
“In the same vein, Nigerians are disturbed by the contradicting claims by Sanwo-Olu, who earlier asserted that there was no causality at Lekki Toll Gate, only for him to admit afterwards that one person died and later changed his figure to two.”
The PDP also expressed disappointment that the Federal Government has failed to make any clarifications on the viral video showing armed hoodlum being brought in vehicles belonging to security agencies and openly coordinated to unleash violence on unarmed and peaceful protesters in Abuja and other parts of the country, noting: “The global community has been in distress over graphic videos of the night shooting at Lekki Toll Gate and the gory pictures of Nigerians killed while waving our nation’s flag and singing the national anthem in protest against Police brutality and myriads of injustices under the administration.”
The opposition party noted that Nigerians are yet to be told who ordered the deployment of the soldiers to toll gate and how Police vehicles were used to bring in armed thugs to attack and kill protesters in Abuja.
After weeks of negotiations and foot-dragging, the Federal Government on Friday accepted the demand by the Academic Staff Union of Universities that they be exempted from the Integrated Payroll and Personnel Information System.
The government also shifted grounds on a number of issues, including the insistence that all the academic staff of the federal universities must be paid through the IPPIS platform.
Reading out the communique at the end of a seven-hour negotiation with ASUU members in Abuja, the Minister of Labour and Employment, Senator Chris Ngige, said the government also agreed to ASUU’s demand to pay their members’ salary arrears from February to June through the old salary payment platform, Government Integrated Financial and Management Information System.
The government also offered to raise the Earned Allowances to university staff from N30bn to N35bn and the revitalization fund from N20bn to N25bn.
The breakthrough in negotiations is expected to end the eight-month strike embarked on by the university lecturers.
The United Kingdom chapter of the Nigerians in Diaspora Monitoring Group, NDMG, has faulted the investigative report by the Cable News Network, CNN, on the Lekki toll gate shooting.
NDMG threatened a legal action against CNN to curtail the platform’s propaganda in Nigeria if it fails to retract the report.
The group said CNN was desperate to salvage its diminishing image and perceived the End SARS protest in Nigeria as its final shot at redemption.
It insisted that there was no originality in the piece as it followed a pre-existing script aimed at indicting the government and military.
Recall that soldiers were alleged to have shot and killed some End SARS protesters at Lekki toll gate recently.
But, the Nigerian Army denied the report, saying its soldiers acted professionally and did not kill any protester at Lekki toll gate.
Amid the controversy that ensued, CNN had released an investigative report countering the claims of the Nigerian Army.
However, the group’s President, Cosmos Collins advised the American television channel to apologize to Nigeria.
He said: “The Nigerians in Diaspora Monitoring Group has taken time to review a purported special report by Cable Network News (CNN) alleging several crimes against the authorities in Nigeria from October 20, 2020, Lekki Toll Gate incident and has come to the inevitable conclusion that the international news network owes Nigeria and its citizens apology.
“Our review confirmed that there was no originality in the report, which is nothing but a stringing together of information that was already available in the public domain in a manner that was aimed at indicting the government and Nigeria’s military forces.
“Understandably, CNN is now under pressure to salvage its image as a credible news source, but it is something it could have tried doing without attempting to further undermine Nigeria.
“We demand that CNN immediately discontinue its demarketing campaign against Nigeria, retract its lies and apologize to our dear country and compatriots failing which we will exploit available legal means to curtail the excesses of this propaganda behemoth.”
Officers of the disbanded Federal Special Armed Robbery Squad are feared to have disappeared, avoiding the inquiry set up by the Lagos government to probe their activities.
Proceedings were adjourned today when lawyers for the Nigeria Police said they could not find the officers, whose activities are under scrutiny
The lawyer then told the Lagos State Judicial Panel of Inquiry for Restitution for Victims of SARS Related Abuses and Other Matters to step down two cases.
The cases arose from the petitions of Mr Ndukwe Ekekwe vs SARS and Mr Olajide Fowotade vs FSARS.
Ekekwe, a 34-year-old trader petitioned that he became paralysed when he was pushed from a two-storey building by men of the disbanded Special Anti-Robbery Squad (SARS).
The police counsel, Mr Emmanuel Eze who had been cross-examining Ekekwe had asked for an adjournment because the legal team of the police were unable to get in touch with the officers of the disbanded SARS.
Ekekwe provided the photograph and phone number of Haruna Hamza, the SARS officer who was a member of the team that allegedly pushed him from the building.
“We will apply for a very short adjournment. The reasons are because of the disbandment of SARS and other tactical teams, we have difficulty getting in touch with them.
“We are in the process of getting there and the phone number of the that the petitioner provided here did not go through.
“I apply that the panel tries the number, it did not go through, in the overall interest of justice we apply for this adjournment,” Eze said.
In the Fowotade matter, the petitioner in his testimony on Oct. 31, told the panel that a policeman called ‘Ayo’ of the Ketu Police Station had brutalised him during a traffic dispute.
The petitioner said he lost his front teeth due to the police brutality.
During Friday’s proceedings, the police legal team said it was unable to contact the police officer.
“The petitioner did not mention the surname of Ayo, we could not trace the name to Zone 2 where he claimed to have reported the incident. We could not make headway.
“We need to get the case file of Ayo and his contact. We are constrained to ask for an adjournment because we are without the Ayo or the case file,” Eze said.
Reacting, Fowotade who appeared distressed, challenged the submission of the police counsel.
“There was the DPO Mr Akpan that took me to the hospital and there is Madam Dolapo Badmus that took me to Kayode Aderanti, the AIG’s office.
“How come you do not know the Ayo, don’t you know the station, don’t you know the DPO. How come you don’t know Ayo, is it not the Nigeria Police Force?
“Madam Dolapo Badmus knows everything, how come you do not know Ayo, is he a ghost?,” Fowotade said.
Chairman of the panel, Justice Doris Okuwobi (Rtd) said that police were not making enough effort defending the allegations, though three police officers were mentioned by the petitioner.
Eze told the panel that the legal team is encountering challenges tracing the officers.
“Akpan the DPO is retired, Mr Aderanti is retired and he did not mention Ayo’s surname.
“Dolapo Badmus has handled so many matters and it will be difficult to get in touch with the retired officers,” the police counsel said.
Justice Okuwobi noted that it will not augur well for the respondents (police) not to contact the police officers mentioned by the petitioners.
The retired judge said that the panel will no longer entertain adjournments made at the instance of the police.
President of the Senate, Ahmad Lawan, has warned that there could be anarchy if the Senate is scrapped as being clamoured by some Nigerians.
Rather, he challenged those who are not comfortable with the senators in the current 9th Senate to vote them out in 2023 if they don’t like their faces.
Lawan stated this on Friday while declaring open, a retreat for top management staff of the National Assembly and National Assembly Service Commission in Abuja.
He described the Senate as a leveler which ensured that all parts of the country are equally represented unlike the House of Representatives where states with higher populations produce the highest number of lawmakers.
The Senate President also faulted the argument of those clamouring for the scrapping of the Senate because of the perceived jumbo pay being earned by the senators.
He said the annual budget of the National Assembly is less than one per cent of the nation’s 2021 budget.
The Federal Government on Thursday announced the completion of the first phase rehabilitation of the Third Mainland Bridge and a planned 18 hours total closure of the bridge.
The Federal Controller of Works in Lagos, Mr Olukayode Popoola during an inspection of the bridge said that the fixing of six expansion joints on the Oworonshoki bound carriageway had been completed.
He commended road users for their patience.
Popoola said that debris would be cleared from the section and construction would move to the Island-bound carriageway, warranting a total closure of the bridge for 18 hours.
He said that the 18 hours closure would begin from midnight on Saturday through Sunday to move construction materials to the new portion and return to the partial closure before Monday morning.
He said by midnight of Sunday, the total closure would be removed and the partial closure would return, which gives priority for huge traffic in and out of the Island.
“The diversions will still be at the same previous points.
” Work is to commence on the Island-bound lane of the bridge with the partial closure of Adekunle to Adeniji Adele Phase B.
“The repair work is to commence between 22nd of November, 2020 and 22nd of February, 2021 for a duration of three months.
“Consequently, Adekunle to Adeniji-Adele part of the bridge on the Island-bound lane measuring 3.5 Kilometres will be partially closed throughout the period of repair works and there will be a diversion of traffic,” he said.
He listed the traffic diversion timings and routes which had not changed from the existing schedule given by the traffic regulatory agencies when the construction started in July.
Popoola explained that rehabilitation works on the first section dragged for an additional one month beyond October due to the slowdown caused by the EndSARS protests and increased rainfall.
“On behalf of the Honorable Minister of Works and Housing, Mr Babatunde Raji Fashola (SAN), I thank Lagosians and the motoring public for their cooperation during the last four months that the rehabilitation work has started,” he said.
Mr Paulo Prono, the Executive Director, Borini Prono, contractors on the project, promised that the firm would do its best to complete rehabilitation of the second phase of the Third Mainland Bridge ahead of schedule.
Prono said that the steel for the construction was ready and three expansion joints were also ready.
He said they were on the ground for immediate commencement of installation on the Island-bound carriageway.
“We are used to the job and we would do better,” he said.
The FRSC Lagos Sector Commander, represented by Mr Zango Matthew, Deputy Corps Commander Operations, Lagos, appealed for understanding of road users, promising adequate traffic regulations.
“Our men would always be on the ground 24/7 to ensure the free flow of traffic,” he said.
NAN reports that the Third Mainland Bridge is going through repair.
It was partially shut on July 24 for the repair.
The repair was expected to last for six months.
It was divided into two phases of three months on each carriageway, starting with the Oworonsoki-bound carriageway.
The 11.8km bridge is the longest of the three bridges connecting Lagos Island to the mainland.
The bridge starts from Oworonshoki, which is linked to the Apapa-Oshodi Expressway and the Lagos-Ibadan Expressway and ends at the Adeniji Adele Interchange on Lagos Island.
Constructed in 1990, the bridge was adjudged as the longest in Africa until 1996 when the Oct. 6 Bridge in Cairo was completed.
