NaijaWire

Archive for July, 2008

Korea - The Nigerian Olympic soccer team, the Flying Eagles, in pursuit of the Olympic football gold medal,  yesterday thrashed a Republic of Korea Premier League club 4-1.

The match, one of the games that coach Samson Siasia has lined up to fine-tune his armory for the Beijing Games, saw the Eagles scoring through Victor Obinna Nsofor, Bernard Okorowanta, Victor Anichebe and Solomon Okoronkwo. The victory comes just three days before the team takes the short flight into Beijing, onwards to Tianjin, where it plays in the group phase of the Games at the quadrennial showpiece.

Abuja - The Federal Government of Nigeria has been stopped from handing over the disputed Bakassi Peninsula to Cameroon by a Federal High Court sitting in Abuja.

Nigeria and Cameroon had agreed to a final handing over of the oil rich peninsula to the latter on August 14, 2008. But at the resumed hearing in a case filed by some indigenes of the disputed peninsula, Justice Mohammed Umar asked the Federal Government to maintain the status quo until the determination of the case.

Justice Umar said, “The justice of this case is that parties to this suit should maintain the status quo, so that the res (substance) will not be destroyed.

London - Super Eagles skipper and English FA winning striker, Nwankwo Kanu, has rejected several tempting offers to move to the less fancied American Major League Soccer (MLS), for a less lucrative 1 year continued stay at English Premier League side, Portsmouth Football Club.

The 31-year-old, whose current contract expired at the end of last season, will sign for a further 12 months with Pompe, with an option of an extra 12 months if he plays an undisclosed number of games in the regular season. Kanu is currently touring with Portsmouth in South Africa, for pre-season games.

Abuja - The President of the Senate, Chief David Mark, has said that Nigeria may adopt the same harsh treatments being meted to her nationals by foreign missions in the process of collecting visa unless they start treating them with respect.

Senator Mark bemoaned the situation whereby Nigerian travelers are subjected to all kinds of humiliations by foreign missions before granting them visas, adding that such treatment could frustrate mutual cooperation between the two countries.

Mark’s statement was contained in a release signed by the chief press secretary to the Senate President, Paul Mumeh, and made available to journalists in Abuja.

Abuja - The Executive Vice Chairman/Chief Executive, Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC), Mr. Ernest Ndukwe, has disclosed that Nigerian mobile phone subscribers will enjoy free, rather than paid, blocking of stolen phones when an anti-theft scheme to be activated by all operators goes live before year end.

The regulatory road map also envisions that by year end, operators will have a database of the identity of pre-paid phone subscribers to assist law enforcement agencies in stemming the growing incidence of crimes linked with mobile and allied telephony services.