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  Manchester City forward Carlos Tevez is expected to secure a £13.5million move to Italian giants Juventus this week. Tevez has been on the radar of a number of the world’s top sides, with AC Milan and Liverpool, as well as boyhood sides Corinthians, and Boca Juniors all linked with the frontman, but he looks to have set his sights on a move to the Serie A champions. The 29-year-old Argentina international has endured a turbulent few years in the blue half of Manchester, having been cut out of the side following a number of pitch-side spats with former Blues manager Roberto Mancini. It seemed the pair had made amends when Tevez made a miraculous return to the squad last year despite an ongoing war of words between the pair, but his future at the Premier League outfit remained uncertain. Many imagined the forward would benefit from a clean slate when Mancini was sacked at the end of the 2012/2013 campaign and replaced by Malaga boss Manuel Pellegrini. But it seems Tevez...

Liverpool have announced the long-awaited signing of Sunderland goalkeeper Simon Mignolet on a long-term deal. The 25-year-old, who is to become the first Belgian to represent the Reds, has impressed during his three-year spell on Wearside following his £2m move from home club Sint-Truiden in 2010. Mignolet, who has earned 13 international caps, is renowned as one of Europe’s brightest goalkeeping talents, and Liverpool boss Brendan Rodgers insisted the young stopper will be given every opportunity to prove himself at the Merseyside outfit. "I am delighted that we have been able to sign one of the top goalkeepers in the Barclays Premier League," Rodgers told Liverpool’s official website. "Simon will join a club that will give him an opportunity to demonstrate and improve his huge talent." The signing casts doubt over Pepe Reina’s future at Anfield, with boyhood side Barcelona thought to be interesting in bringing the Spaniard back to the Nou Camp. ...

An Ikeja High Court on Tuesday issued a bench warrant on two oil marketers, Oluwaseun Ogunbambo and Habila Theck, for failing to attend their trial without cogent reasons. The warrant was issued by Justice Adeniyi Onigbanjo on the marketers who are standing trial for an alleged N979.6 million fuel subsidy fraud. The  judge also revoked the bail earlier granted to the first accused (Ogunbambo). Ogunbambo and Theck were charged alongside their firm — Fargo Energy Ltd. — by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC). They were arraigned on a six-count charge bordering on conspiracy, obtaining money by false pretences, forgery and use of forged documents. At Tuesday’s proceedings, the duo failed to appear in court, prompting the EFCC counsel, Mr Francis Usani, to ask the court to issue warrants on them. Usani said there was no medical report to back Ogunbambo’s claim that his absence was as a result of ill-health. He said the absence had stalled the hearing of th...

THE Senate has rejected the proposed UK visa policy that seeks to compel visitors from some countries including Nigeria to deposit 3,000 ponds bond before its immigration authority at entry point, saying it would not accept Nigeria in the list. The upper legislative chamber threatened that it would push for the same treatment on the UK citizens in Nigeria or those seeking entry into the country by the time Nigeria is officially notified of the new development.

A cold war appears to be brewing again, between the Presidency and the National Assembly following President Goodluck Jonathan’s outright refusal to assent the State of the Nation Address Bill, passed by the National Assembly on March 13, 2012, and forwarded to him for assent. The president, in a letter Tuesday, to the legislature, dated June 10, 2013, through the Senate President, David Mark, explained that his action was based on the grounds that the proposed law was a duplication of the extant law as contained in the 1999 Constitution. President Goodluck Jonathan He said the bill which was particularly transmitted to him on May22, 2013 by the Clerk of the National Assembly for assent amounted to what he referred to as “a duplication of Section 67 of the Constitution”. Both chambers of the National Assembly passed the State of the Nation Address Bill with the Senate passing it on March 13, 2013 having been earlier treated in the same manner by the House of Representatives. ...

Ghanaian rep in the Big Brother Africa house, Selly, has finally succumbed to Nando’s demands of wanting to have sèx with her. Nando is clearly a persuasive guy and the chemistry between the two is apparent. Nando spent a better part of the evening whispering sweet stuffs in Selly’s ear… On Sunday night, Selly blushed when Nando decided to add a little colour to her life. While everyone in the House struggled to come to terms with Motamma and Betty’s Evictions, Nando was on a sèx mission. As he and Selly sat on the couch, Nando decided to fetch a blanket to ensure he and his lady love get a bit of privacy. With only their heads peeking out of the blanket, Nando turned on the charm and told Selly just how much he wants her. “I want to smash it every day. I want to make love to you in every way. Let’s go upstairs”, he whispered, as Selly bit her thumb and played with her hair. Selly didn’t make any attempts to stop the raunchy word play and seemed to be enjoying every...

Super Eagles Head Coach, Stephen Okechukwu Keshi, was a sober figure after the team lost 3-0 to Spain in its last group game on Sunday and thus crashed out of the ongoing Confederations Cup holding in Brazil and has already started a post mortem. Team’s Media Officer Ben Alaiya, quotes Keshi as saying despite his bold face on injuries to some of his key players, it turned out that injuries actually decimated the performance of the team at the tournament. “I can’t imagine that my top striker Emmanuel Emenike will miss some of the goals that we missed and even Ogenyi Onazi was sorely missed, Victor Moses would have ruined any team here and ofcourse several other players that should have been here could not make it due to injuries. Among them United States based Bright Dike. Keshi then declared that he knows exactly what to do while appealing to Nigerians to forgive the team for the less than average performance at the tournament. He promised that the team will come good in the Worl...

Ogedegbe Primary School in Warri could soon be more than a Primary school. Kids from the school won this year’s Channels Kids Soccer Competition in Lagos. And for that Delta State Governor, Dr. Emmanuel Uduaghan , in line with his sports development programme, plansd to transform the school into a special football nursery that will also take their school work seriously. Interestingly, Dr. Uduaghan was a special guest in the final of the competition with Babatunde Fashola, the Governor of Lagos State. CHANNELS CUP . . . Governor Fashola of Lagos State, Chief Tony Momoh and Governor Emmanuel Uduaghan of Delta State and Amaju Pinnick during the presentation of trophy to Sheriff Obukowho Captain of Ogedegbe Primary School, Warri , winners of Channels National Kids Football championship in Lagos. Photo; Henry Unini He watched the team from his state lift the trophy and he invited them to the Governor’s Cup final in Warri, May 29. And yesterday, he visited the school during the i...

FORMER Green Eagles goalkeeper, Joe Erico has hailed the Super Eagles performance at the ongoing Brazil 2013 FIFA Confederations Cup describing it as a good step to greater things to come. The former NEPA coach, Erico said the Confederations Cup has given the team handlers the opportunity to really see how far the Eagles can go when they qualify for the World Cup proper billed for Brazil next year. He lamented that the team lacks sharp finishers hence they crashed out of the tournament with only three points after beating the whipping boys of the group, Tahiti. “The team’s performance at the tournament was quite good , it’s very good for us because it has given us the opportunity to really see how far we can go when we qualify for the World Cup. Luckily, we have the last World Cup qualifier against Malawi here  and the experience from playing against the world’s best  at the Confederations Cup will be of  immense help to us. Our strikers are lacking in speed off and...

West Brom chairman Jeremy Pearce has insisted that the club will not be forced into a cheap sale of Peter Odemwingie. The striker is widely expected to leave the club following a season of unrest, but Pearce is adamant the Premier League club will not part company with him unless their criteria are met. Osaze Odemwingie started just 13 Premier League games last season compared to 25 the year before and also halved his goal tally in the English top flight from 2011/12 to five. The wantaway forward caused a great deal of controversy in the January transfer window when he effectively tried to initiate his own move to QPR, only for it to fall through. “We have a player who is under contract until the end of the season,” Pearce told the Birmingham Mail. “Unless something comes in to change our way of thinking he will be back in pre-season and we will deal with that. “We took a view at the end of January – not only for the reasons of Peter Odemwingie or Queens Park Rangers, a...

The Federal Road Safety Commission (FRSC) in partnership with the United Bank for Africa (UBA), on Tuesday, inaugurated e-ticketing to facilitate easy booking of motorists for road traffic offences. Speaking at the inauguration, Mr Osita Chidoka, the Corps Marshal of the FRSC, said the bank had donated the first set of 60 hand-held devices for the e-ticketing. According to him, 10 other devices have been donated by another bank for the programme. Chidoka said the e-ticketing would initially take off as a pilot scheme in Lagos, Rivers and the Federal Capital Territory (FCT). He said that with the introduction of the system, the FRSC would gradually move away from the conventional method of booking traffic offenders, which he described as obsolete and time-consuming. The corps marshal said the new system would enable the FRSC to track habitual offenders, improve data management and reduce time spent in booking offenders. “It will also enhance the capacity of the FRSC to confr...

Edo state on Monday hanged four prisoners, in what was believed to be Nigeria's first known executions since 2006, drawing outrage from rights activists. Nigeria has faced international scrutiny over its death penalty, with concerns over whether suspects receive a fair trial in a country where corruption is widespread. While they would mark the first official, known executions since 2006, Nigerian security forces have been repeatedly accused of extra-judicial killings during that time period. President Goodluck Jonathan recently called on state governors to sign death warrants, saying it was their responsibility under the law. The Amnesty International condemned the decision by the Nigerian government to hang the four convicts in Benin city, the capital of Edo state. The body said the hanging was done even as moves by some NGOs to save five of the convicts sentenced to death failed as a federal high court rejected to hear the lawsuit filed to stop the hanging. Two executioners w...

Here is the dramatic story of a 22-year-old student of the Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile-Ife, Osun State,  who  just gave birth to a baby inside one of the toilets in her hostel When the news first broke, a lot of people vilified her. It was reported that she wanted to get rid of what many would describe as a bundle of joy. People thus wondered why a 22-year-old undergraduate would try to flush away her baby in one of the toilets in Moremi Hall, her hall of residence at the Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile-Ife, Osun State. Without clarifying the circumstances that led to the delivery in the toilet, they went on to social media networks,  putting on trial Miss Oyinlola Rotimi, the 400-Level student of Agricultural Extension and Rural Sociology at OAU, who delivered a baby boy on Wednesday.  While the news went round the campus, the traumatised young mother was hurriedly taken to the institution's Health Centre by two cleaners, Mrs. Shipebi Grace and Mrs. Cecilia...

A security man and employee of First Bank Nigeria Plc, Jibowu Branch, Seyi Jaiyeola, is standing trial at a magistrate's court in Ebute Meta for allegedly breaking the company's automated teller machine and stealing a sum of N12, 533,900. The bank's branch Service Manager, Mr. Kayode Aiyewunmi, who gave evidence in court, said Jaiyeola was on a N20, 000 monthly pay and was a member of the Odua People's Congress. He said the company had observed that one of the bank's four ATMs was having a reconciliation problem and had employed the service of an expert to help unravel mysterious disappearances of money. Aiyewunmi said, "We discovered that there was always a shortage of cash in the machine. "Despite our reconciliation efforts, the ATM was still having problems and we engaged the service of an expert who submitted his report and said the machine did not have any reconciliation issue. "He said somebody was breaking into the machine in the middle of...

The Lagos State Police Command says it has arrested members of a kidnapping syndicate suspected to have kidnapped the Chairman, Ejigbo Local Council Development Area, Kehinde Bamigbetan. According to the police, the suspects were arrested shortly after kidnapping an Indian, Vivex Changrani, in the early hours of Monday. The Commissioner of Police for the command, Umar Manko, said the suspects were not based in Lagos but only operated in the state on weekends after which they would flee to Ghana. He said apart from Bamigbetan, the suspects had been involved in a series of high-profile kidnapping including that of a Federal High Court judge in Lagos. He said, "Based on painstaking investigation and tracking of Nigerian kidnappers who kidnapped Ejigbo LCDA Chairman, Kehinde Bamigbetan, a sitting Federal High Court Judge and other notable individuals in Lagos, a team of detectives, led by the Officer in Charge of the Special Anti-Robbery Squad, traced the kidnappers to the Agbara...

The Senate resumes from its seasonal break and will sit for five weeks before embarking on a prolonged two-month break. In the five weeks ahead, Senators would have to confront five serious issues. Having ended its second legislative year on 6th June, the Seventh Senate resumes its third legislative session with a sense of optimism today after a two-week break. The legislators are expected to sit for another five or so weeks before proceeding on a  two-month break and is expected to resume on September 24, 2013. In the last two years the Senate was able to introduce about 160 bills with several in various stages of legislative consideration. Among them are 16 executive bills, the rest being members’ bills. Out of these, 17 bills were passed, 14 were read a second time and referred to relevant committees while two were negatived. The negatived bills were Equipment Leasing Bill 2013 and the Nigerian Search and Rescue Guards (Est.etc) Bill, 2013. Priority consideration Accor...

First Vice President of the Nigeria Football Federation, Chief Mike Umeh has blamed Super Eagles chief coach, Stephen Keshi for the team’s poor showing at the Confederations Cup in Brazil. Umeh told Sports Vanguard that  the absence of “big boys” in the team caused their defeats to Uruguay and and Spain. Keshi and Osaze “We played well but our attack failed us. Keshi need to get stronger boys and we have them. I don’t know why he has refused to bring in Osaze,” Umeh said, with a tinge of frustration in his voice. The NFF chieftain said the football house has always given Keshi a free hand. “Yes, we have always given him freedom to operate, but he must work closely with the technical committee.” Chief Umeh said there was nothing bad in Keshi building a squad for the future but that must be done gradually. “It is clear he took a young squad to the Confederations Cup. The young players, particularly the home  based players need to be introduced gradually. They n...

Four death row prisoners, Chima Ejiofor, Daniel Nsofor, Osarenmwinda Aigbonkhan and Richard Igagu in Edo State, were, yesterday, executed, despite their pending appeals at the Court of Appeal. It will be recalled that President Goodluck Jonathan had recently directed state governors to sign the execution warrant of death row inmates, advising them not to shy away from same, as it was part of their duties. Vanguard gathered that the execution took place despite the pendency of the suit by the condemned inmates, challenging their being on death row for over 16 years. They had also asked that their conviction be commuted to life imprisonment. Meanwhile, Legal Defence and Assistance Project, LEDAP and Amnesty International, yesterday, condemned the execution. Vanguard was informed that the execution was carried out at 6:45pm, yesterday, by hang men. Edo State Attorney General and Commissioner for Justice, Mr Henry Idahagbon, in his reaction, said the executed men were convicted...

Former Super Eagles handler, Christian Chukwu has expressed hope in the present squad handled by Stephen Keshi despite the team’s ouster from the FIFA Confederations Cup by Spain on Sunday. “We are out but our heads are not bowed,” Chukwu said, in a chat with Sports Vanguard, Monday. Christian Chukwu and Stephen Keshi “We played well. We used the matches to know our deficiencies in the team and the tournament served as a good preparatory ground for our remaining World Cup qualifiers. For now, we know what we need to fortify the team.” The former Enugu Rangers coach was particularly happy with the experience gained from the tournament. “It was good for the players and they are going to improve.” Chukwu said the team’s biggest problem was their inability to score goals. “Definitely, our attacking line needs the injection of good finishers. But I give kudos to Vincent Enyeama and his defenders. They did a marvelous job. Although they lost concentration at times which resulted ...