Former military president of Nigeria, Ibrahim Badamosi Babangida, has said that only a stupid soldier will think of coup.
Speaking on Channels Television, Babangida insisted that the mindset of soldiers has changed.
“I can tell you no that only a stupid soldier will think of a coup d’état because this is outside their head, it is no longer in their psyche.
“It is no longer acceptable in Africa and in the world generally, so he is intelligent enough to know that if he stages a coup, the country will be ostracised in the world community of nations.
“There can be an uprising in your own country, so it’s no longer fashionable,” IBB said.
Babaginda also said this generation was only interested in moving the country forward as a united entity.
“You cannot convince me that this country should break; I wouldn’t talk to you for a long time because I know people died trying to keep the country one, so my generation will insist this country remains one.
“There are 200 million people in this country and there are some people in my generation and the one after mine, who will always believe in this country and those generations, will move this country towards the required objective,” he added.
Record-breaking Liverpool beat Tottenham 1-0 to extend their lead at the top of the Premier League table to a yawning 16 points on Saturday as Southampton gained sweet revenge over high-flying Leicester.
Chelsea and Manchester United secured comfortable wins in the race for the top four but 10-man Arsenal fell further off the pace after a limp draw at Crystal Palace.
Jurgen Klopp’s Liverpool secured their 20th win in 21 Premier League matches thanks to Roberto Firmino’s 37th-minute goal at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium.
Spurs had their chances to take at least a point as Son Heung-min and Giovani Lo Celso missed the target with the goal gaping in the final 15 minutes.
The European champions have won 61 points in the Premier League — the most any side has ever registered after 21 games in a single season across Europe’s big five leagues, assuming three points for a win.
Their scarcely credible lead over second-placed Leicester means they are almost certain to claim their first English top-flight title for 30 years barring a calamitous collapse.
“We played super football in their box, but for 90-95 minutes you have to be ready,” Liverpool manager Jurgen Klopp told Sky Sports. “We were, but we still have to do better.”
Speaking about Liverpool’s record he said: “It’s special. To win the number of games, to always be ready to fight, that’s what the boys do.
“The only thing is that you don’t get anything for best starts. The only thing we’re interested in is what we can get in the summer. This league is so strong. We have to be ready.”
– Leicester lose –
Earlier, Southampton claimed their fifth win in their past six games in all competitions as they came from behind at the King Power Stadium to beat Leicester 2-1.
Dennis Praet fired the hosts into an early lead, but Stuart Armstrong’s deflected effort quickly pulled Hasenhuettl’s men level.
Danny Ings then scored his 10th goal in 11 games eight minutes from time and the visitors survived a late scare when Jonny Evans’s header was ruled out by VAR for offside.
Chelsea put their struggles at Stamford Bridge behind them with a 3-0 win over Burnley, who slid ever closer to the bottom three.
Jorginho opened the scoring from the penalty spot and Tammy Abraham gave Frank Lampard’s men breathing space before half-time.
Callum Hudson-Odoi then scored his first Premier League goal by converting Cesar Azpilicueta’s cross at the back post.
United ended a three-game winless run in style with Marcus Rashford and Anthony Martial once again leading the way for Ole Gunnar Solskjaer’s men in a 4-0 demolition of bottom-of-the-table Norwich.
Rashford marked his 200th appearance for the club with two goals and Martial and substitute Mason Greenwood were also on target.
Solskjaer was delighted with this team’s performance, which leaves them in fifth spot in the table, five points behind fourth-placed Chelsea.
But after the match he took fans at Old Trafford to task after angry protests aimed at unpopular owners the Glazer family and executive vice-chairman Ed Woodward.
“As a club we’ve got to stick together, we’ve got to be united, we are a family,” said the United boss.
“I can only say from when I’ve been here I’ve been backed by the owners, I’ve been backed by Ed and they’re supporting me, so for me, make sure they stick together.”
Woodward has become a particular target for supporters in recent months, given the club’s on-field problems and his record in the transfer market.
– Aubameyang sees red –
Arsenal are now 11 points off the Champions League places as their revival under Mikel Arteta was halted by a red card for captain Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang in a 1-1 draw at Crystal Palace.
Aubameyang gave the Gunners a deserved first-half lead but the Eagles levelled thanks to Jordan Ayew’s deflected effort before a VAR review turned a yellow card for Aubameyang into a red for a reckless challenge on Max Meyer.
Wolves were held 1-1 at home by Newcastle while Everton bounced back from an embarrassing FA Cup exit to a youthful Liverpool side thanks to a moment of magic from Richarlison to beat Brighton 1-0.
During Spurs’ match against Liverpool, injured Tottenham forward Harry Kane tweeted an image of himself in his hospital bed following successful surgery on his damaged hamstring. He wrote: “First day of recovery starts now!”
Defending champions Manchester City travel to Aston Villa on Sunday, 17 points behind Liverpool.
Nigeria’s ex-President, Chief Olusegun Obasanjo has paid a visit on the Ogun State Governor, Dapo Abiodun.
The former president was spotted at Abiodun’s Oke-Mosan office in Abeokuta, Ogun State.
Obasanjo reportedly hits Abiodun’s office at 11:45 a.m. and left at exactly 12:45 p.m., after a closed-door meeting.
The former president told newsmen that he came to greet the governor and wished him a Happy New Year.
According to him, “I have come to say happy New Year to the Governor. I have not been here since he (Abiodun) got here as the Governor, so, I came to welcome him to the seat.
“I also raised a few issues that I believe would be to the development of Ogun State in the area of education, agriculture, rural development, and other wonderful issues. We had a wonderful discussion,” Obasanjo said in a report by Vanguard.
He said he had visited the governor to rub minds with him on how to move the state forward to greater heights.
Former aviation minister and chieftain of Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, Femi Fani-Kayode, has hailed the initiative of the regional security initiative ‘Amotekun’ by Southwest governors.
The Western Nigerian Security Network (WNSN) was inaugurated on Thursday and has been codenamed ‘Operation Amotekun’.
According to the governors, which comprise Kayode Fayemi of Ekiti, Rotimi Akeredolu of Ondo, Dapo Abiodun of Ogun, Gboyega Oyetola of Osun, Seyia Makinde of Oyo and Jide Sanwo-Olu of Lagos, the sub-regional security initiative is to compliment the work of the Police.
The governors of the six South-West states have also stressed that the initiative is not an agenda to break up from Nigeria or override the federal government’s security system.
Reacting to the initiative, Fami-Kayode described the Amotekun initiative as the best thing that has happened to the Southwest states in the last 4 years.
He, however, encouraged Niger Delta and Igbo governors to emulate the initiative of the South Western Governors in tackling Insecurity.
He said via a tweet on Friday morning: “The Amotekun security outfit & initiative is the best thing that has happened to the SW states in the last 4 years. I commend the SW Governors & all those involved in its formation & establishment. I urge the Governors of SS (southsouth)/and SE(southeast) to do the same. Self-defence is the first law!”
The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC, has categorically denied it will arraign Former Vice President, Atiku Abubakar over alleged N75.3 billion fraud.
EFCC acting spokesman, therefore, in a statement made available to newsmen in Abuja stated, “EFCC wishes to state categorically that nothing of such took place”.
Orilade added, “The Commission also wishes to state that no statement or press release emanated from the spokesperson of the Commission, Mr. Wilson Uwujaren to that effect as claimed in the report, nor was there any involvement of any sort from the Commission’s prosecutor, Joy Amahian in the imaginary arraignment.
“The story remains the authors imagination and fake news.
“The Commission, therefore, urges the general public to disregard the fake news as handiwork of mischief makers”.
The Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board has suspended the National Identity Number requirement for candidates seeking admission into tertiary institutions in the country.
This follows public outcry and difficulty experienced by candidates trying to register for the 2020 Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination.
In a new initiative, JAMB Registrar, Prof Ishaq Oloyede, said the National Identity Management Commission will create registration centres at every computer-based test centres across the country “for candidates, who do not have the NIN to avoid difficulties in writing the examination.”
The board had in October 2019 announced that NIN will be a prerequisite for all prospective admission seekers to register for the 2020 UTME.
SaharaReporters had reported that some prospective UTME candidates expressed displeasure at the cumbersome process of registration and enrolment for the NIN.
A large number of candidates flooded the registration centres in Lagos and Abuja as personnel of the NIMC were unable to answer them all.
Iran’s military announced early Saturday that it had accidentally shot down a Ukrainian passenger jet, blaming human error because of what it called the plane’s sharp, unexpected turn toward a sensitive military base.
After days of tension since the jet crashed near Tehran on Wednesday, the same day that Iranian missiles struck American bases in Iraq, the admission was a stunning reversal. Iran initially maintained that mechanical issues had brought the Boeing airliner down, killing all 176 people aboard.
“The Islamic Republic of Iran deeply regrets this disastrous mistake,” President Hassan Rouhani said on Twitter soon after the military released its statement. He offered condolences to the victims’ families and said investigations were underway. The military said the person responsible would face legal consequences.
International pressure had been building on Iran to take responsibility. American and allied intelligence assessments had already concluded that Iranian missiles brought down the plane, Ukraine International Airlines Flight 752, most likely by accident, amid the heightened tensions between the United States and Iran.
“The little credibility that the Islamic Republic had among its supporters suffered a major blow tonight,” said Rouzbeh MirEmbrahim, an independent Iran analyst in New York and a consultant with the United Nations. “This tragedy undermines the image Iran has cultivated as a military power and weakened it significantly both regionally and internationally.”
On social media, Iranians began expressing anger toward the military soon after the announcement, many of them using the term “harshest revenge,” which officials had repeatedly promised in the wake of the American drone strike that killed Maj. Gen. Qassim Suleimani, a powerful Revolutionary Guards commander, last week.
“They were supposed to take their harsh revenge against America, not the people,” wrote Mojtaba Fathi, a journalist.
The Iranian military’s statement said the plane “took the flying posture and altitude of an enemy target” as it came close to an Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps base. It said that “under these circumstances, because of human error,” the plane “came under fire.”
The military said it would undertake “major reform in operations of all armed forces” to make sure that such an error never happened again. It said Revolutionary Guards officials had been ordered to appear on state media and give the public a full explanation.
In a statement of his own, Iran’s foreign minister, Mohammad Javad Zarif, tried to place some of the blame on the United States, saying on Twitter that the disaster was “caused by U.S. adventurism.” The military’s statement said there had been information suggesting the United States was “preparing to aerially target sensitive defense and key sites and multiple targets in our country, and this led to even more sensitive defense posture by our antiaircraft units.”
The State Department had no immediate comment late Friday about Iran’s admission of responsibility.
Suspicions that an Iranian missile had brought down the plane were raised immediately after the crash Wednesday morning — just hours after Iran fired missiles at two bases in Iraq housing American forces.
The Iranians asked the National Transportation Safety Board to help with the investigation, and the State Department granted waivers to allow the American agency to help. A senior administration official said Friday that he thought the Iranians wanted American investigators there to keep up the appearance that they did not know what had caused the crash.
The official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to discuss these matters publicly, said the Iranian military had poor command and control, and that this was reflected in what had happened with the airplane. Communications among officials and between units are often lacking, he said, and confusion can be the norm. Western analysts often overestimate the capability of parts of the Iranian military, he said.
State television in Iran aired footage that it said showed two flight recorder units recovered from the crash site. Processing their data could take more than a month, and the investigation could take up to two years, Hassan Rezaeifar, the head of the Iranian investigation team, said Friday.
The military announcement came as something of a surprise. As late as Friday night, officials were weighing whether to blame faulty jet equipment in acknowledging that Iranian missiles brought down the jet, according to four Iranians familiar with the deliberations.
Until Saturday, Ukraine’s main intelligence agency, known as the S.B.U., said only that it had narrowed the cause of the crash to a missile strike or a terrorist act and that it could not confirm Western intelligence that an Iranian missile system was likely to blame.
An Iranian report released on Thursday said that the plane, bound for the Ukrainian capital, Kyiv, was in flames before it hit the ground but sent no distress signal.
When Iran began firing missiles early on Wednesday in retaliation for the killing of General Suleimani by the United States in Baghdad, international airlines rerouted flights away from Iran, and the Federal Aviation Administration barred American carriers from the airspace in the region.
After the crash, experts raised questions about why the Iranian authorities had not stopped flights in and out of Tehran.
In Iran, a debate over how much blame the government bears threatened to destroy the national solidarity that followed the country’s conflict with the United States. Many Iranians said that their anger over the lack of accountability at the highest levels of government had quickly returned.
On Friday, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said that the United States and its allies had intelligence showing that the passenger jet had been shot down. He was the first American official to publicly confirm the intelligence assessments.
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau of Canada, citing a preliminary review of the evidence, called for a full investigation “to be convinced beyond all doubt.” The jetliner was carrying 57 Canadians among its 176 passengers and crew.
“We recognize that this may have been done accidentally,” Mr. Trudeau said at a news conference in Ottawa. “The evidence suggests very clearly a possible and probable cause for the crash.”
President Volodymyr Zelensky of Ukraine made clear on Friday that Western governments had not initially shared the evidence underpinning their assessments that Iran had brought down the Ukrainian jet, though later a spokeswoman said that American officials had handed over more information.
Ukrainian officials also analyzed the plane’s flight pattern on Friday and determined it had stayed within the normal corridor for flights out of Tehran’s Imam Khomeini International Airport, Ukraine’s foreign minister, Vadym Prystaiko, said at a news conference.
“Our goal is to ascertain the undeniable truth,” Mr. Zelensky said in a statement on Friday. “We believe this is the responsibility of the whole international community before the families of the dead and the memory of the victims of the catastrophe.”
Chukwuemeka Ike, one of Nigeria’s most read novelists, has died.
Ike died on Thursday in Anambra State at the age of 88.
The writer achieved acclaim for his works such as Toads for Supper, his first work published in 1965, The Naked Gods (1970), The Potter’s Wheel (1973), Sunset at Dawn (1976), Expo ’77 (1980), The Bottled Leopard (1985), Our Children Are Coming (1990) among others.
He served as an academic in various roles including as a registrar at the University of Nigeria, Nsukka, and a visiting professor at the University of Jos.
He also served as the registrar of the West African Examination Council, the first Nigerian to hold that position.
Until his death, he was the traditional ruler of Ndikelionwu community in Orumba, Anambra, a position he held since 2008.
The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission has spoken up on the detention of ex-lawmaker, Senator Shehu Sani.
Sani is being detained for allegedly obtaining $25,000 from an auto dealer, Alhaji Sani Dauda, to bribe EFCC Chairman, Ibrahim Magu, in order to protect him from an investigation by the agency.
The anti-graft agency, in a statement signed by its acting spokesperson, Tony Orilade, said the senator is being treated well and he is detained in a very decent environment, adding that Sani has a case to answer.
“Invariably, claims in some quarters of the breach of his fundamental human rights are merely in the imagination of the purveyors of such claims.
“Let it be stated clearly that Senator Shehu Sani has questions to answer as regards his alleged involvement in name-dropping, and particularly that he obtained $25,000 from Alhaji Sani Dauda, the ASD Motors boss, in order to help shield him from investigations being carried out by the EFCC.
“For certain people to brazenly come out to defend a suspect being probed for a serious offence like the one committed by Sani shows that they are not really conversant with his offence.
“It is unfortunate that certain people are ready to do anything to support evil for pecuniary gains.”
The tension in the Middle East remains and may escalate as Iran has threatened to hit Israel and Dubai with bomb attacks if President Donald Trump of the United States carries out any retaliatory attack.
Recall that Iran had earlier struck the military bases housing the US forces in Iraq with ballistic missiles in what it called revenge for the US airstrike that killed its top military commander, Qassem Soleimani.
After the missile attack, which allegedly killed 80 “American terrorists”, according to Iran’s local media, the country’s Revolutionary Guard warned the US and its allies against further retaliation, Daily Mail reports, citing a statement published by Iran’s state-run IRNA news agency.
“We are warning all American allies, who gave their bases to its terrorist army, that any territory that is the starting point of aggressive acts against Iran will be targeted,” the statement reads partly.
President Trump, while delivering an official statement reacting to Iran’s retaliatory attack on military bases housing the US troops in Iraq, said no Americans or Iraqis were harmed, adding that the bases had minimal damage.
Trump also said Iran “appeared to be standing down” just as he said that the US is ready to embrace peace. He, however, vowed to impose new sanctions on Iran as a result of the retaliatory attack.
The US president said the “powerful sanctions” will remain until Iran changes its behaviour.
“The United States will immediately impose additional punishing economic sanctions on the Iranian regime,” President Trump was quoted to have said.
Record-breaking Liverpool beat Tottenham 1-0 to extend their lead at the top of the Premier League table to a yawning 16 points on Saturday as Southampton gained sweet revenge over high-flying Leicester.
