Author: straightnewsng.com

Olivier Giroud scored four goals in Seville as Chelsea breezed past Sevilla 4-0 to secure top spot in Champions League Group E on Wednesday. Giroud delivered left-foot, right-foot and headed finishes for the perfect treble – and then whipped a spot-kick into the top corner for good measure. Chelsea will host Krasnodar at Stamford Bridge next week, but sealed top spot with their win in Spain, and a potentially easier tie in the last-16. Giroud put the squeeze on Blues boss Frank Lampard to hand the France striker a Premier League start against Leeds on Saturday, once again proving his…

Again, Kaduna State has become the epicentre of COVID-19 as Nigeria recorded 122 new infections on Wednesday. Of the new figure, Kaduna has 37 confirmed cases while Lagos and Plateau have 29 and 25 cases respectively, according to Nigeria Centre for Disease Control. “On the 2nd of December 2020, 122 new confirmed cases and 1 death were recorded in Nigeria. “The 122 new cases are reported from 11 states- Kaduna (37) Lagos (29), Plateau (25), Ekiti (9), Rivers (5), Ogun (5), Edo (4) Kwara (4), Bayelsa (2), Bauchi (1), and Kano (1),” NCDC tweeted. According to the health agency, “Till…

Efforts by the Federal Government and Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) to end the nine-month-old strike have taken a new twist. This is as Federal government has inaugurated a new committee to renegotiate the 2009 agreements with lecturers and others. Before now, ASUU said Tuesday it was consulting with relevant organs of the union concerning the Federal Government’s offers when to call off the strike. Recall that the lecturers who are currently on strike are demanding for funding for the revitalization of universities, earned allowance, the constitution of visitation panels, payment of shortfall in salaries of lecturers, and a stop to…

Nigeria’s former Finance Minister, Dr Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala has been announced as the recipient of the 2020 African of the Year award. The Forbes Africa-CNBC award is the latest honour clinched by the multi award winning development economist and former Managing Director of the World Bank. Reacting to the news, Okonjo-Iweala, expressed her delight at the recognition and dedicated the award to Africans facing the health and socio-economic challenges of COVID-19 during a very difficult year. “It is a great honour to serve Africa in different capacities,” said Okonjo-Iweala, who was one of the African Union Special Envoys appointed to mobilize…

Gunmen have killed an Assistant Commissioner of Police in the early hours of Wednesday in Calabar, Cross River State capital. Mr Egbe Edum before his murder was the Borno State Assistant Commissioner of Police (ACP). Speaking with Channels Television in Calabar, Irene Ugbe, the police spokesperson of Cross River Police Command, said the ACP came to Calabar to see his family after being away for a long time before the ugly event occurred. Ugbe noted that Edum was attacked while he was waiting for his wife to pick him up after his car broke down along the Murtala Mohammed Highway…

Federal Government  has directed car owners in the country to pay N250,000 for conversion of their cars to autogas. The Group Managing Director, Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC), Mele Kyari on Tuesday, December 1, had said that one million cars are to be powered by Autogas free of charge. Justice Derefaka, Technical Adviser on Gas Business and Policy Implementation to Minister of State for Petroleum, Timipre Sylva who appeared on a Channels Television programme on Wednesday, December 2  stated that vehicle owners will have different payment plans to covert their cars to autogas. Dereka said, “The cost varies. So in terms…

Pope Francis, Wednesday, condemned the massacre of farmers in Borno State by Boko Haram insurgents. The terrorists attacked the area outside Borno state’s capital Maiduguri on Saturday, slaughtering at least 76 labourers in rice fields near the village of Zabarmari. “I want to assure my prayers for Nigeria, where blood has unfortunately been spilled once more in a terrorist attack,” he said in his weekly general audience. Remembering those who he said were “brutally killed”, he said: “May God welcome them in his peace and comfort their families, and convert the hearts of those who commit similar atrocities, which gravely…

A Swedish-Nigerian woman has been handed a four-year imprisonment by Federal High Court, Uyo  for alleged child trafficking in Akwa Ibom State. Stephany Isaksson, 43, was jailed on two counts of keeping an 18-month-old baby by means of fraud from one Uduak (currently at large), an offence which is contrary to section 13(2)(b) of trafficking in persons (Prohibition) Enforcement and Administration Act 2015 and for receiving the custody of the baby, knowing that the infant would be subject to exploitation. This is contrary to section 21 of the Trafficking in Persons (Prohibition) Enforcement and Administration Act. Isaksson was apprehended by…

The 18-year-old set a new landmark for the Austrian giants on Tuesday Nigerian wonder-kid, Karim Adeyemi, broke a Champions League record for Red Bull Salzburg on Tuesday, when he netted in their 3-1 victory at Lokomotiv Moscow. Adeyemi added Salzburg’s third in the 81st minute away at the RZD Arena, finally killing off the contest after Anton Miranchuk had pulled one back for Lokomotiv two minutes beforehand following a first-half double from the visitors’ Mergim Berisha. In finding the net, Adeyemi becomes—at the age of 18 years and 318 days—the youngest player ever to score in the Champions League for…

More than 300,000 passengers have been airlifted by Ibom Airlines Limited since its inception last year, the Group Manager, Marketing and Communications of the Airline, Mrs. Aniekan Essienette, has said. The airline also said it has contributed more than one billion naira directly and indirectly to the economy of Akwa Ibom people through vendors and suppliers within the period. Essienette told our correspondents in Uyo on Tuesday that the airline would continue to play its role as  a key vehicle for the economic development and growth of Akwa Ibom state. According to him, the 300,000 passengers included the COVID-19 lockdown…