Chelsea’s 25-man squad for the 2019/2020 season, have been published.
Squads were confirmed ahead of the first game of the season, but the Premier League has just released them now, following the closure of the European transfer window on Monday.
The 25-man squad system was introduced at the start of the 2010/2011 season.
Squads cannot include more than 17 non-homegrown players, with eight members of the team having to be developed in England.
Chelsea squad list:
Abraham, Tammy*
Alonso Mendoza, Marcos
Arrizabalaga Revuelta, Kepa
Azpilicueta Tanco, Cesar
Barkley, Ross*
Batshuayi, Michy
Borges Da Silva, Willian
Caballero Lazcano, Wilfredo Daniel
Christensen, Andreas Bodtker*
Giroud, Olivier
Jorge Luiz, Frello Filho
Kante, Ngolo
Kovacic, Mateo
Loftus Cheek, Ruben*
Palmieri Dos Santos, Emerson
Rodriguez Ledesma, Pedro Eliezer
Rudiger, Antonio
Tomori, Fikayo*
Zouma, Kurt Happy
Orji Kalu, Chief Whip of the Senate, has condemned the attacks on Nigerians in South Africa, describing it as ill conceived, disheartening and wicked.
In a statement issued on Tuesday in Abuja by Mr Kunle Oyekunle of Orji Kalu Media Office, the former governor of Abia questioned the essence of the renewed attacks on Nigerians.
“The gruesome killings, looting, arson of property belonging to Nigerians and attack of Nigerian Embassy in South Africa is ill-conceived, disheartening and wicked.
“How can any sensible person attack and burn a fellow human being just because he or she has a feeling to do so?
“Those mindless criminals who attacked and prevented law abiding Nigerians to freely conduct their businesses must be made to pay for their crimes.
“Arresting them is not enough,’’ he stressed.
While emphasising that South Africans lived and carried out their businesses peacefully in Nigeria, Kalu said there would be no reason to allow them operate further if South African government failed to protect the lives of Nigerians.
“If the South African government fails to do more to protect the lives of Nigerians, there should be no reason to allow them to operate freely in Nigeria.
“All their enterprises deserve to be closed down including MTN, DSTV, Shoprite among others.
“In the spirit of brotherhood, we have supported them. Our doors have always been open, but it’s time to retaliate by shutting our doors,” he said
The Senate Chief Whip, however, commended President Muhammadu Buhari for dispatching a special envoy to the South African government.
He urged the Federal Government to hasten the intervention process and institute stiffer measures against South Africa over the endless xenophobic attacks.
Meanwhile, Mr Adetola Olubajo, President, Nigeria Union South Africa, said on Monday that the attacks began on Sunday morning in Jeppestown area of Johannesburg, when a building was set ablaze by an angry mob.
“The mob also looted several shops that were around the vicinity suspected to be owned by foreign nationals.
“But the police later dispersed the mob and made some arrests.
“Late in the evening of Sunday, Sept. 1, a group of violent locals, suspected to be Zulu hostel dwellers besieged Jules Street in Malvern, Johannesburg, looted and burnt shops and businesses with Nigerians being the most victims.
According to witnesses living on Jules Street, the Zulu hostel dwellers were very organised and well-coordinated in looting and burning of shops and businesses suspected to be owned by foreign nationals.
The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) recalls that over 70 shops and businesses were destroyed, looted and burnt on Monday night in Malvern area of Johannesburg.
The governorship primary election ended abruptly in the early hours of Wednesday when gunmen invaded the venue of the election, Lokoja Confluence Stadium.
The News Agency of Nigeria reported that voting had ended and sorting of votes were going on when the gunmen came to the venue at about 1:45 am and started shooting from different directions.
According to the report, votes in eight out of the 10 ballot boxes have already been counted and sorted out before the disruption by the gunmen.
The Premier League have released the 25-man squads for every team for the 2019/2020 season.
Squads were confirmed ahead of the first game of the season, but have just been released now, following the closure of the European transfer window on Monday.
The 25-man squad system was introduced at the start of the 2010/2011 season.
Squads cannot include more than 17 non-homegrown players, with eight members of the team having to be developed in England.
Manchester United squad list:
Bailly, Eric Bertrand
De Gea Quintana, David
Grant, Lee Anderson*
Hoelgebaum Pereira, Andreas Hugo*
James, Daniel Owen*
Jones, Philip Anthony*
Lindelof, Victor Jorgen Nilsson
Lingard, Jesse Ellis*
Maguire, Jacob Harry*
Martial, Anthony Joran
Mata Garcia, Juan Manuel
Matic, Nemanja
McTominay, Scott*
Mitchell, Demetri Kareem*
Pogba, Paul Labile*
Rashford, Marcus*
Rojo, Faustino Marcos Alberto
Romero, Sergio German
Santos, Frederico Rodrigues De Paula
Shaw, Luke Paul Hoare*
Tuanzebe, Axel*
Wan-Bissaka, Aaron*
Young, Ashley Simon*
The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, on Tuesday, explained to the Federal High Court in Abuja that it declared the Hopes Democratic Party’s presidential candidate in the last election, Ambrose Owuru, wanted over fraud charges pending against him in Port Harcourt, Rivers State.
EFCC’s lawyer, Ibrahim Audu, said this at the hearing of Owuru’s fundamental rights enforcement suit challenging the legality of being declared wanted by the commission in a July 10, 2018 newspaper publication.
Justice Nkeonye Maha after hearing parties to the case on Tuesday, fixed October 7 for judgment on the legality of the publication and whether the former presidential candidate was deserving of the N500m sought as damages in the suit.
Audu told the judge that Owuru was avoiding trial in the criminal case instituted against him by the commission, prompting the court in Port Harcourt to issue an arrest warrant against him.
The commission said the criminal charges against Owuru bordered on obtaining money by false pretence.
Audu said, “He was evading his trial and the High Court duly issued an arrest warrant against him. It was on the basis of the arrest warrant that the publication was made.”
Earlier on August 7, 2019, the matter came up at the preliminary stage before another vacation judge of the Federal High Court in Abuja, Justice Taiwo Taiwo.
A lawyer representing Owuru, Mr. Eze Nnayenlugo, said the criminal case referred to by the commission involved “a land transaction”, and that the case had been withdrawn.
But the EFCC insisted that the criminal case was still pending before the Port Harcourt Division of the Federal High Court and was never withdrawn.
Earlier on Tuesday, Owuru’s lawyer, Chukwunoyerem Njoku, urged Justice Maha to grant his client’s prayers, including an award of N500m for the damage allegedly done to his reputation with the EFCC’s publication.
He also sought other restraining orders against the anti-graft agency to stop it from further making such publication.
Njoku insisted that the commission had no power to declare anybody wanted without the backing of a court order.
“There is nothing in the exhibit tendered by the respondent (EFCC) that empowers it to make that publication,” Njoku added.
But replying to that line of argument, Audu said there was also no provision of the Administration of Criminal Justice Act that made a court order, a condition precedent to declare a defendant facing criminal charges wanted.
“There is nothing in ACJA that says for the publication to be made, there must be a court order,” he added.
Audu said that the subject matter of the suit, “is not one of the enforceable rights under Chapter 4 of the Constitution or under the Fundamental Rights Enforcement Procedure Rules”.
He maintained that the suit ought to have been filed as a libel case instead of a fundamental rights enforcement suit.
He also argued that the Supreme Court had admonished other lower courts “not to be misled in treating every infraction as a violation of the fundamental rights”.
Justice Maha, after listening to the parties, on Tuesday, fixed October 7 for judgment.
The Presidential Election Petition Tribunal had on August 22, 2019 dismissed an election petition filed by Owuru to challenge President Muhammadu Buhari’s victory at the February 23, 2019 poll.
He had since filed his notice of appeal before the Supreme Court to challenge the tribunal’s decision.
Nollywood film-maker and producer, Olajide Kareem, aka Seun Egbegbe, has spent over 30 months (two years and six months) in prison after he failed to meet the N5m bail granted him by the Federal High Court in Lagos.
He was incarcerated on February 10, 2017.
The 43-year-old had been arrested for allegedly obtaining money by false pretences from no fewer than 40 bureau de change operators in different parts of Lagos from 2015 to 2017.
Egbegbe allegedly swindled the BDC operators out of the money by claiming that he had naira to change into foreign currencies and vice versa.
The erstwhile Lagos socialite had been arraigned by the police for a series of fraud involving N39,098,100, $90,000 and £12,550.
Egbegbe and one Oyekan Ayomide were first arraigned on February 10, 2017, before Justice Oluremi Oguntoyinbo, on 36 counts bordering on advance fee fraud.
The charge sheet was subsequently amended twice, with the counts eventually increased to 40 and three other defendants – Lawal Kareem, Olalekan Yusuf and Muyideen Shoyombo – added.
The prosecuting counsel for the police, Innocent Anyigor, said Egbegbe and the other defendants acted contrary to Section 8 of the Advance Fee Fraud and Other Related Offences Act 2006 and were liable to be punished under Section 1(3) of the same Act.
They pleaded not guilty.
On February 24, 2017 Justice Oguntoyinbo granted each of them N5m bail with two sureties in like sum.
The judge said one of the sureties must be a civil servant on at least Level 16 and must own a landed property in Lagos State.
The surety, the court said, must deposit the Certificate of Occupancy of the landed property in the custody of the court.
Both sureties were to swear to affidavit of means, while their addresses were to be verified by the court registrar.
Oguntoyinbo ordered them to be remanded in prison until they meet the bail conditions.
Over 30 months after, Egbegbe has remained in the Ikoyi Prison, as he has been unable to perfect his bail conditions.
The police prosecutor, Anyigor, had told the court that he had no fewer than 40 witnesses, including the BDC operators, who would testify against Egbegbe and his co-defendants.
The spokesperson for the Lagos State Command of the Nigerian Correctional Service, Rotimi Oladokun, on Sunday confirmed that Egbegbe was still in custody, adding that his freedom was conditioned on his bail terms.
“It is not our fault. It is simply because he has not met his bail conditions,” he said.
Campaign poster of Adams Oshiomhole, the National Chairman of the All Progressives Congress, APC, vying for 2023 presidential election has emerged.
The poster has Oshiomhole, former Edo State Governor vying for the presidency with Kaduna State Governor, Nasir El-Rufai as his running mate.
The campaign poster was cited in Ikeja, Lagos State, yesterday with the message: “Mandate 2023.”
Oshiomhole currently heads the ruling party which produced Muhammadu Buhari as the President of Nigeria.
Buhari is currently battling to retain his position as President, following the election petition by Atiku Abubakar, the presidential candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP.
Atiku is challenging the authenticity of Buhari’s victory at the 2019 presidential election.
Minister of Foreign Affairs, Geoffrey Onyeama, has summoned the South African High Commissioner to Nigeria, Bobby Moroe, over the xenophobic attacks on Nigerians in South Africa.
The envoy was expected to meet with the minister by 11:00 a.m. on Tuesday.
A senior MFA official, Kimiebi Ebenfa, confirmed the development in a WhatsApp message.
The message read, “I am directed to inform you that the Minister of Foreign Affairs has summoned the High Commissioner of South Africa for a meeting this morning by 11. The meeting was confirmed a few minutes ago.”
Onyema had said that the Federal Government would take “definitive measures” in the aftermath of xenophobic attacks on Nigerians in South Africa.
He was, however, silent on the measures that would be taken over the increasing violence against Nigerians and other foreigners in the country.
He described the attackers as mindless criminals, noting that the police intervention was ineffective.
Onyeama said this on Monday on his verified Twitter handle in reaction to the burning of Nigerian property by South Africans in Johannesburg, Marvel, Turfontein and Jamestown, on Sunday night.
Onyeama had tweeted, “Received sickening and depressing news of continued burning and looting of Nigerian shops and premises in #SouthAfrica by mindless criminals with ineffective police protection. Enough is enough. We will take definitive measures.”
The latest attacks on foreigners in South Africa started last week after a taxi driver was murdered by an alleged drug dealer in Pretoria.
Speculations that the alleged killer was a Nigerian sparked protest, looting and burning of foreign-owned businesses.
The police had struggled to bring the attacks under control.
Our correspondent reported that Onyema was also scheduled to meet with his SA counterpart to discuss the escalating xenophobic attacks.
A Russian court on Tuesday sentenced a blogger to five years in prison for a tweet that called for attacks on the children of law enforcement officials, news agencies reported.
Moscow’s Presnensky district court found Vladislav Sinitsa guilty on extremism charges and ruled he must serve five years in a penal colony, Russia’s three main news agencies reported from the court.
Sinitsa, a manager who wrote on Twitter under the pseudonym Max_Steklov and lives in a town outside Moscow, was detained last month over the tweet he posted on July 31, according to investigators.
He was charged with inciting hatred against a social group using the Internet and with a threat of violence, under Russia’s harsh anti-extremism legislation.
The tweet was written in response to a police crackdown on demonstrations calling for fair elections, which have seen tens of thousands take to the streets of Moscow in recent weeks.
Sinitsa in his tweet imagined a situation in which people found the homes of law enforcement officers to kidnap and kill their children, which investigators said was a call to violence.
His tweet was picked up and reported on by pro-Kremlin media.
Sinitsa’s case was rushed through in a single hearing. Prosecutors had asked for the maximum possible sentence of six years.
