Author: straightnewsng.com

Lionel Messi delivered another masterful performance as Barcelona sailed past Athletic Bilbao 2-0 on Sunday to take an 11-point lead over nearest rivals Atletico Madrid in La Liga. After putting Chelsea to the sword in the Champions League midweek, Messi scored for the sixth game in a row against Athletic at the Camp Nou to propel Barca closer to the domestic title. “Every day he discovers something new, something different, he’s very aware of what he has to do, what the team needs from him at each moment,” Barca coach Erneste Valverde said of Messi, the Spanish league’s leading scorer this…

Sprint legend, Usain Bolt, will attend next month’s Commonwealth Games on Australia’s Gold Coast to watch the 100-metres final, former Jamaican world champion Yohan Blake has revealed. Bolt, 31, who retired from athletics after August’s World Championships in London, has been busy preparing for a tilt at football and has also worked with Australia’s cricketers to boost their running between the wickets. Blake, one of the track stars at the April 4-15 Games, arrived in Australia on Sunday and told reporters the eight-time Olympic champion and world record holder in the 100m and 200m was “coming to watch the 100m final”.…

Birmingham is set to be announced as the host of the 2022 Commonwealth Games after Durban was stripped of the event in March, according to reports Wednesday. The Games were originally awarded to Durban in 2015 but the South African city had the event taken away for financial reasons. That led to a shortened bidding contest that came down to a race for British government funding between Birmingham and Liverpool, which was won by the central English city in September. Despite being the only city to submit a bid by the Commonwealth Games Federation’s (CGF) deadline of the end of…

In a bid to enhance port operations, the Presidential Enabling Business Environment Council, PEBEC, has directed shipping firms operating in Nigeria to ensure that ship manifests were electronically transmitted to relevant stakeholders seven days before the arrival of the vessel. Speaking during a meeting with maritime stakeholders over the weekend, Senior Special Assistant to the President on Industry, Trade and Investment, Dr Jumoke Oduwole, said the Council in January came up with a National Action Plan and directed the Nigerian Shippers’ Council to look at the shipping firms, with a view to reducing dwell time and ultimately reduce cost. Oduwole…

A sexagenarian in Mgbakwu village in Awka North local government area of Anambra State, who was cooking food at 4 p.m. on Saturday, abandoned the food to take her life. It was learnt that Uzoaku walked into her bedroom where she had tied a rope to the burglary-proof bars of the window to allegedly commit suicide, thus sending shock waves down the spines of the villagers. Punch Metroline gathered that the deceased, a mother of two unemployed graduates, complained to some people that she was angry that her two children, who graduated some years back, had not got any job.…

The International Fund for Agricultural Development, IFAD-sponsored Value Chain Development Programme has created1,504 new jobs for both men and women in Anambra State. The programme is co-financed by the Federal government, the Anambra State government and the five participating local government areas of Anambra East, Anambra West, Ayamelum, Awka North and Orumba North. Of the number of jobs created, 1087 were permanent engagements, while the rest were non-permanent. Details showed that adult men and women got 767 permanent engagements, while youths got 320 permanent jobs. Presenting the programme’s mid-term review report in Awka when a team from the federal government…

The management of Nigeria’s oil and gas logistics giant, INTELS Nigeria Limited, has constructed and donated an ultra-modern market to the Onne community in Rivers State. Mr. Silvano Bellinato, the General Manager of INTELS Nigeria Limited, while speaking in Onne Friday, said the ultra-modern market was built at the cost of N1.2 billion, saying that the facility was built as part of the company’s corporate social responsibility (CSR). According to him, the company’s CSR focuses on critical areas of intervention including creation of employment, empowerment and provision of development projects for host communities. He said INTELS adopts an integrated participatory…

Vladimir Putin won a landslide election victory on Sunday — the fourth anniversary of the annexation of Crimea-extending his presidency by another six years as he easily breezed past a field of minor candidates left by the disqualification of his only credible rival. If Putin serves to the end of his new fourth term, which expires in 2024, he would become the longest-serving leader of Russia since Soviet dictator, Josef Stalin. Anti-corruption campaigner Alexei Navalny, an outspoken critic of Putin who was considered his strongest potential rival was barred from Sunday’s vote following his conviction on fraud charges that are…

Matthew Kukah, Catholic bishop of Sokoto diocese, has accused northern Muslim elite of using religion to hold on to political power. Speaking at the burial of Joseph Bagobiri, former Catholic bishop of Kafanchan diocese, Kukah said “It is sad that the northern Muslim elite have used religion to hold on to power to the detriment of even their own people and the larger society,” he said. Kukah lamented that the north is still the “poorest part of the country” despite many Nigerian leaders coming from there. “For despite holding power for all these years, the north is still the poorest…

Senator Udoma Udo Udoma, the Minister of Budget and National Planning, has lost Inam Udoma, his immediate elder brother. The minister, who hails from Ikot Abasi local government area in Akwa Ibom State, has confirmed the death. The sad incident occurred last Tuesday morning, March 13, after a brief illness. Aged 66, Inam was a University of Ibadan trained geologist. A businessman, he had several business interests and served on a number of boards, including that of Linkage Assurance Plc. Son of the pioneer Supreme Court judge in Uganda, the late Dr. Herbert Udo Udoma, he was married with three…