Month: April 2020

Premier League return date still not clear, says Brady

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West Ham chief executive Karren Brady claims the Premier League’s return date is still unclear despite hopes the top-flight season can restart in June.

The Premier League said on Friday that wrapping up the remaining 92 fixtures remains their goal, but the on-going coronavirus crisis means no fixed schedule can be drawn up yet.

Brady’s West Ham were perilously placed in the English top flight when football was suspended, sitting above the relegation zone on only goal difference with nine games remaining.

“Players will have been able to retain some physical fitness at home,” Brady wrote in her column in The Sun on Saturday.

“But if social-distancing rules are still in place, physical match-play training will not be allowed — you can’t tackle from two metres away.

“So, how match-fit will players be if the season commences, as we all hope it will, by mid-June?”

With most clubs having nine games left, it was reported that Friday’s meeting of the 20 clubs discussed finishing the season in a 40-day window.

scussed finishing the season in a 40-day window.

There have been claims that clubs were told domestic seasons must end by July 31 and the 2020-21 campaign must start by the first week of September at the latest.

But Brady is adamant difficult questions over training, testing of players, hygiene and medical protocols will need to be resolved first.

The Premier League has been suspended since March and the UK’s lockdown is in place until May 7 at the earliest.

Brady questioned how Premier League clubs could regularly test players for the virus when the same situation is not yet in place for all NHS workers.

She also highlighted a potential unfairness in some squads having a number of players in self-isolation.

“Police officers will need to be at games even if they are behind closed doors as some supporters will travel to the stadium, even if they cannot come in to watch,” she said.

“Everyone at the stadium — and even behind closed doors this is about 300-500 people — including security, staff, medical officers, players, referees and media, will have to have temperature checks, fill out health questionnaires and observe social distancing.

“Then there is the issue of injuries. All this is manageable but what if a player gets injured, where do we send him?

“It can’t be to an NHS (UK National Health Service) hospital that is already under pressure and private hospitals are carrying out NHS procedures and not taking in injured footballers. So then what?”

Westerhof worse than Rohr, but German coach not good enough for Eagles – Laloko

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Former Technical Director of the Nigeria Football Federation (NFF), Kashimawo Laloko, has expressed disappointment at the thought of Clemens Westerhof coming back to coach the Super Eagles 26 years after he left the team.

Westerhof’s desire to coach the Eagles again was made known to The Guardian recently by a top official of NFF. The official revealed that the Dutch had indicated interest to return as Eagles’ technical adviser with a young coach.

This decision has, however, not gone down well with many, who still feel bad that the coach refused to return home with the team after Nigeria’s ouster at the 1994 World Cup held in United States of America. Westerhof had helped the team to qualify for its maiden appearance at the World Cup in USA and also won her second Africa Cup of Nations (AFCON) in Tunisia.

Speaking to The Guardian yesterday, Laloko stated that he never saw Westerhof as a coach, but rather as an organiser. He said that the Dutch only succeeded because he had direct access to the former military Vice President, Augustus Aikhomu, and that almost all his wishes as regards funding were met.

“As far as I am concerned, Westerhof is not a coach but an organiser. He was lucky that during his time as the coach of the Super Eagles he had direct contact with the late Aikhomu, and things worked out well for him. He cannot get same treatment now.

“These days, we don’t have people with the kind of interest in football shown by Aikhomu back then and that is the truth. Westerhof and his former assistant, Bonfere Jo, are birds of a feather and they are not good enough. Westerhof is even worse than Gernot Rohr,” he said, adding that he wondered why Rohr would say there are no good players in the country’s local league.

“The problem I have with Rohr is how many league matches does he watch that will make him to condemn them? During my days as the technical director of NFF, I insisted that the Eagles should be made up of 25 per cent home-based players and the board agreed. And we had so many of them who later played for the country.

“So, how can you now be telling me there are no good players in our league again? In the countries he has coached what and what did he win there? I do not know why people cannot do things the right way.

“We are not doing the right thing, that is just the truth. But we keep on messing up ourselves unnecessarily. Again, the fact that Westerhof succeeded as a coach doesn’t mean he is good. It is because he had people like the late Aikhomu, Amos Adamu, Bolaji Ojo-Oba who helped him out. Now, he cannot find such people again,” he stated.

Ogun police arrest 150 suspected cultists over Ifo/Ota crisis

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The police in Ogun have arrested no fewer than 150 suspects following supremacy clashes between rival cult groups in Ifo and Sango- Ota axis of the state.

The Ogun Commissioner of Police, Kenneth Ebrimson, stated this on Sunday at the Ifo Divisional Police Station where he paraded the suspects. The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that the high point of the crisis occurred on April 4, as many residents fled for their lives and others lost possessions in the mayhem.

Ebrimson, however, refuted claims that armed robbers hijacked the crisis, adding that “there was no report or complaint of robbery made to the command by anyone from the troubled areas”

The CP described the incident as “a case of cult clashes among seven rival groups within the areas as a result of recent death of one of the members” .
He explained that the command swung into action immediately it received the information and had since effected arrests in connection with the incident.

“We deployed our men from the Special Anti-Robbery Squad, Anti-Cultism unit, Anti-Kidnapping unit, the Special Forces and conventional policemen drawn from the Ifo and Ota area commands.

“Our men smoked the suspected criminals out of their hideouts and recovered various weapons.

“We recovered eight locally made guns, 52 live cartridges, eight knives, 12 handsets, two scissors, large quantity of weeds and several cutlasses,” he said.

“It all started on April 4 as a reprisal attack on other rival cult groups from a cult group which had earlier lost a member.

“I want to say that there was no single case of armed robbery or any case of kidnapping that has been reported to us.

“The basic issue is cultism that emanated from the killing of one of them in Ifo and spread to Sango, Ijoko and Agbado areas,” he said.

Air Peace denies reports of crew members absconding quarantine

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Air Peace has denied reports that three of its crew members absconded from the quarantine facility of the Lagos Government.

Its Chief Operating Officer, Mrs Toyin Olajide, made the denial in a statement issued in Lagos on Sunday.

Olajide was refering to one of its aircraft operated by Boeing B777-200ER (P4 5-NBVE) which airlifted medical supplies and some Chinese medical personnel who arrived at the Nnamdi Azikiwe International Airport, Abuja, on April 8.
According to her, all the crew members that operated the flight which included six pilots, eight cabin crew, two engineers and one dispatch officer are still quarantined under the supervision of the Lagos State Government.

She explained that at the onset of the flight to China, the crew members were tested for the COVID-19 and each of the members tested negative.

Olajide said that the airline followed the Nigerian Civil Aviation Authority (NCAA) protocol to ensure that the crew members were protected from any form of exposure to the virus.

She said that on arrival at Beijing airport none of the crew members came out of the aircraft, while the aircraft was loaded with medical supplies.

”The Chinese medical team boarded the aircraft from the central door and stayed in the business class cabin before the take off of the flight to Nigeria,” she said.

She said that the International Civil Aviation Organisation (ICAO) approved standard protocol to protect flight crew during the COVID-19 pandemic and those of NCAA were adopted.

African economies hard hit by coronavirus pandemic

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Sub-Saharan Africa has not been as badly hit by the coronavirus pandemic as some other parts of the world, but the economy is being pummelled.

Here’s a look at the main issues.

Perfect storm recession
For the first time in 25 years sub-Saharan Africa is about to go into recession, according to World Bank estimates.

Following 2.4 percent growth last year, the estimate for 2020 is between -2.1 and -5.1 percent as the economy contracts.
This is in part a knock-on effect from the economic hits being taken by Africa’s main trading partners: China, the EU and the United States.

Add to that the slump in the key markets of raw materials and tourism as well as the effect of measures to confine populations at home and you have the perfect economic storm for the continent.

The African Development Bank remains less pessimistic but still sees a fall into recession of between -0.7 and -2.8 percent.

Tens of millions of jobs in danger
The African Union estimates that around 20 million jobs, in formal and informal sectors, are under threat.

The United Nations puts the figure much higher, at up to 50 million.

Money transfers from diaspora drop
High unemployment and economic slowdown are also hitting African workers abroad, and therefore their money transfers back home, which are often a vital part of the economy.

The transfers to Mali in 2018 represented 5.5 percent, according to Bloomfield Investment analysts.

The figure for Senegal was 10 percent.

These cash transfers are expected to fall significantly with more than half the world’s population in some kind of lockdown.

Price of raw materials plummets
Sub-Saharan Africa’s two biggest economies, South Africa and Nigeria are heading for deep recessions, according to the World Bank, as demand drops from developed nations for raw materials such as oil and precious metals.

The same goes for Angola, Africa’s second biggest oil exporter.

Oil prices have fallen to between $20 and $30 a barrel, nearing the cost of production in Nigeria.

Even gold, a traditional safe haven for investors, is not immune. The reduction in air transport and the closure of some refineries is limiting gold exports, according to Bloomfield Investment.

And the cotton market is down sharply, a matter highlighted on Friday by President Ibrahim Boubacar Keïta of Mali, where around a quarter of the workforce is linked to the sector.

We’ll deal ruthlessly with criminals in Ogun says Abiodun

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Gov. Dapo Abiodun of Ogun on Sunday vowed to deal ruthlessly with criminals terrorizing the people of the state.The governor said this in a statement issued in Abeokuta by his Chief Press Secretary, Mr Kunle Somorin.

The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that the state police command had earlier on Sunday paraded 150 suspects in connection with recent series of harassments, robberies, burglaries and cult clashes that occured within the Agbado Ijaiye, Sango, Ijoko and Ifo axis of the state.

The governor said: “It has become expedient that we do not spare the rod and spoil the child. Anybody, no matter whose child he or she is, if found guilty of armed robbery, would be visited with the full weight of the law, including capital punishment.
Abiodun urged the police to intensify efforts at curbing the nefarious activities of criminals, asking them to smoke them out of their hideouts and promptly investigate those involved in the activities across the state.

He said the state would avail all other security outfits, including the Department of State Security Service and the armed forces, with necessary material and logistic support to end the reign of terror unleashed by armed robbers on the state.

“I will not hesitate to confirm sentences, even of capital punishment, if that will deter these social misfits. Ogun has zero- tolerance for criminals and we will deal with it with venomous measures,” he said.

The governor commended the state police command for its swiftness and prompt adherence to directive of the state government to flush out those turning the sit-at-home order to a criminal enterprise.

BREAKING: Nigeria records five new coronavirus cases, total now 323

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Nigeria has recorded five new coronavirus cases in Lagos, Kwara and Kastina states.

This brings the total number of confirmed COVID-19 cases in the country to 323, The PUNCH reports.

Of the five new cases, the NCDC said two each were recorded in Lagos and Kwara while one was reported in Katsina.

The Nigeria Centre for Disease Control announced this on Sunday via its Twitter handle.

It said, “Five new cases of COVID-19 have been reported as follows: two in Lagos, two in Kwara
one in Katsina.

“As of 09:10 pm on the 12th of April, there are 323 confirmed cases of #COVID-19 reported in Nigeria. 85 have been discharged with 10 deaths.

“There are 19 states with confirmed cases in Nigeria.

“Currently, Lagos has 176 cases, Federal Capital Territory, Abuja – 56, Osun – 20, Edo – 12, Oyo – 11, Ogun – seven, Bauchi – six, Kaduna – six, Akwa Ibom – five, Katsina – five, Delta – three, Enugu – two, Ekiti – two, Rivers – two, Kwara – four, Ondo – two, Benue – one, Niger – one, Anambra – one and Kano – one.”

This is as the Federal Government has not said whether it will extend a two-week confinement order on Lagos, Ogun, and Abuja that ends Monday.

The President, Major General Muhammadu Buhari (retd), had ordered the lockdown of the states and FCT to curb the spread of the coronavirus since March 31.

On Saturday Buhari issued a statement urging Nigerians to stay at home and to wash their hands to help save lives, but there was no indication whether the official confinement period would be extended past Monday.