Super Falcons Set For Season’s Campaign, 36 Players Called To Camp

February 13, 2015

The Nigerian female national team, the Super Falcons, is set to begin preparations for the 11th All-Africa Games qualifiers, 2016 Olympic Games qualifiers and the 7th FIFA Women’s World Cup finals as the Head Coach of the team, Edwin Okon, has called up 36 players to camp.

The invited players were made up of 10 foreign-based and 26 home-based players and are expected to report at the Serob Legacy Hotel, Abuja on Sunday, February 22, with their training kits, international passports and birth certificates include.

Among those listed are goalkeepers: Ibubeleye Whyte and Precious Dede; defenders: Onome Ebi, Faith Ikidi and Ngozi Ebere; midfielders: Halimat Ayinde, Cecilia Nku and Osarenoma Igbinovia and strikers Asisat Oshoala, Uchechi Sunday and Desire Oparanozie.

The Falcons have an All-Africa Games qualifier away at Mali on March 22, with the return leg in Nigeria three weeks later. They will then clash with the same Malian side in May for a 2016 Olympic Games qualifying fixture.
The 7th FIFA Women’s World Cup finals take place in Canada June 6 – July 5, 2015.

List of invited players

Faith Ikidi (Pitea IF, Sweden)

Onome Ebi (FK Minsk, Belarus)

Osinachi Ohale (Houston Dash, USA)

Francisca Ordega (Pitea IF, Sweden)

Onyinyechi Okere (Edo Queens)

Alaba Jonathan (Pelican Stars)

Christy Ohieriaku (Osun Babes)

Ibubeleye Whyte (Rivers Angels)

Precious Dede (Ibom Queens)

Ugochi Njoku (Rivers Angels)

Mariam Ibrahim (Nasarawa Amazons)

Halimat Ayinde (Delta Queens)

Ngozi Ebere (Rivers Angels)

Onyinyechi Ohadugha (Rivers Angels)

Esther Sunday (Pelican Stars)

Chisom Henry (Sunshine Queens)

Cecilia Nku (Rivers Angels)

Desire Oparanozie (EN Avent De Guingamp)

Josephine Chukwunonye (Rivers Angels)

Asisat Oshoala (Liverpool Ladies)

Ngozi Okobi (Delta Queens)

Evelyn Nwabuoku (Rivers Angels)

Chikodi Amaefuna (Edo Queens)

Courtney Dike (Oklahoma State University, USA)

Chinwendu Ihezuo (Pelican Stars)

Patience Agbokadi (Sunshine Queens)

Osarenoma Igbinovia (Ibom Queens)

Blessing Edoho (Pelican Stars)

Yetunde Adeboyejo (Bayelsa Queens)

Uchechi Sunday (Belarus)

Sarah Nnodim (Delta Queens)

Ebere Okoye (Nasarawa Amazons)

Sarah Michael (Kif Orebro, Sweden)

Loveth Ayila (Rivers Angels)

Ini Umotong (Portsmouth Ladies, UK)

Okewole Funke (Sunshine Queens). [myad]

Saudi Arabia Closes Embassy In Yemen, Evacuates Staff

Greenbarge Reporters

February 13, 2015

Saudi Arabia has suspended operations at its embassy in Yemen, and evacuated its staff due to the deteriorating situation in the capital, Sanaa. The capital is now under the control of the Houthi rebels.

The Saudi foreign ministry said today:“due to the deteriorating security and political situation in the Yemeni capital, Saudi Arabia has suspended all embassy operations in Sanaa and evacuated all its staff, who have arrived safely in the kingdom.”

The kingdom is the first Arab country to evacuate embassy staff from Sanaa, after several Western governments, including the United States, shut their missions this week, after the Shia armed group took over the government in a coup.

It was learnt that Saudi’s decision is another sign of deterioration in the security front and is also aimed to increase the pressure on the Houthis to withdraw.

Saudi is leading a diplomatic effort in New York, asking the UN to pass a resolution demanding the withdrawal of the Houthis from Sanaa.

Earlier today, Italy also announced the closing of its embassy even as UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said yesterday that Yemen is “collapsing before our eyes” and slipping closer to outright civil war. [myad]

Obasanjo Says Future Of Nigeria Is Rosy, With “Strong President”

Greenbarge Reporters

February 13, 2015

Former Nigerian president, Chief Olusegun Obasanjo has said that in spite of the problems currently bedeviling Nigeria, the country’s future is “rosy” and bright, but with a proviso “under the leadership of a strong President.”

He noted that the country faced similar problems in the past, including the civil war but came out stronger, adding: “God will see Nigeria through. Nigeria will emerge successfully and move up and forward”

Speaking at the launching of his book, My Watch, in London, Obasanjo, who was reported to have endorsed the candidacy of the All Progressives Congress (APC) Presidential candidate for the March 28 election, General Muhammadu Buhari, insisted that what he desired for Nigeria is a strong president.

“Well, whatever you get in the paper and in the press, please yourself,” he said to guests at the event, who wanted to confirm the reported endorsement.

“What I said, I maintain that I will say it again and I will do it. When the time comes for me to vote, I will consider the track record of all the candidates that are contesting and I will assess and based on my own assessment for who I believe have the best track record to perform the job of the Nigerian President, then he will have my vote. If anybody should know what the job of the Nigerian President requires, I should know.”

Obasanjo made it clear that it is insulting and ridiculous to question the academic credentials of Generald Buhari, saying that when he joined the army in 1958, it was mandatory that one must have WASC or GCE before enlisting in the armed forces.

He said the requirements were the same when General Buhari joined the army in 1961, and that even if Buhari did not have the required qualifications then, he had gone through the staff college which is equivalent to a first degree and the US War College which is equivalent to a master’s degree.

“If anybody thinks that I’m illiterate or uneducated after attending many military institutions in the UK, India and the US, they should read my books”, he said, and urged those engaged in Buhari’s qualification debacle to “focus on real issues and stop degenerating into trivialities.”

The book launch which was attended by mainly Nigerians in Diaspora, was anchored by Richard Dowden of the Royal African Society, London, and Zeinab Badawi, a renowned television broadcaster. [myad]

APC Alleges Moves By PDP To Frustrate Professor Jega To Resign, Laments Jonathan Loss Of Authority

Greenbarge Reporters

February 13, 2015

All Progressives Congress (APC) Presidential Campaign Organisation has alleged moves by the ruling Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and the Presidency to stampede the chairman of Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), Professor Attahiru Jega to resign, even as it regretted that President Jonathan has on his own, admitted that he has ceased to play his role as the commander-in-chief of the Nigerian armed forces, on account of which he needs to urgently clarify his position under the constitution.
The APC Presidential Campaign Organisation said that the Presidency’s and PDP’s strident and scurrilous castigation of the use of Card Readers for ensuring the integrity of the forthcoming general elections, as being proposed by INEC, is the PDP’s agenda for the manipulation of the electoral process.
In a statement, Director of the Campaign Organisation, Garba Shehu said that the Presidency and PDP’s opposition to the card readers is one of the ploys to get Professor Jega out of the way and subsequently, the appointment of a pliable lackey who will do the hatchet job of stopping the use of the Card Readers.
Garba Shehu said that that the INEC’s decision to use the Card Readers was borne out of the need for ensuring electoral transparency and integrity.
“Aside the huge financial investment involved in the procurement of the Card Readers, the PDP’s desire to hoodwink the Nigerian people on this anti-rigging device, is not just subterranean but an affront on the independence of the electoral body.
“We are equally aware that this is the latest gambit of the ruling Party in its desire to thwart the electoral wishes of majority of Nigerian electorate. We are aware also of the use of its tested and well-oiled rigging machine of unregistered voters and accentuation of same by the use of soldiers that had been specially trained and reserved for that nefarious purpose.
“We have said it that, based on the ruling of the Federal High Court, Sokoto against the use of Soldiers for Election duties, our Party is opposed to the use of soldiers for the Election Days on 28th March and 11th April, 2015.
“We insist that the use of Card Readers for authenticating the propriety of the Permanent Voters’ Cards presented and ultimately, accreditation of Voters, as envisioned by INEC. These, in our estimation as a credible Party, remain the irreducible minimum that must form the basis for the conduct of free, fair, and credible elections on 28th March and 11th April, 2015.
“We call on all Nigerians to remain vigilant and we, on our part, shall remain alive to our responsibility in galvanizing the citizenry for assuring on the virility of the Nigerian nation. Indeed, eternal vigilance is the price of our liberty.”
Meanwhile APC Presidential Campaign Organisation has noted that President Jonathan has on his own, admitted that he has ceased to play his role as the commander-in-chief of the Nigerian armed forces, on account of which he needs to urgently clarify his position under the constitution.
The Campaign Organisation said that Jonathan’s loss of control was quite evident in the media chat which the president hosted on Wednesday, February 11.
“President Jonathan claims that he had no idea about the plans to postpone the elections. Who then gave the command to the service chiefs to write the letter to Jega considering that the NSA’s line of reporting is directly and exclusively to the President? Did they write it without clearance from the commander in chief?”
The Campaign Organisation noted that the service chiefs, at the prompting of the National Security Adviser, made presentations to the Council of State.
“Who authorised them to make that presentation since the President claimed that he was not informed about the shift in the polls date, nay by extension the security issue that was raised by the security chiefs for the postponement of the polls?
“Is the President telling the nation that the top brass of the military can act without his consent? If that is the case, what then is his constitutional responsibility as commander in chief?”
It noted that the situation is troubling for Nigeria and for the country’s democracy, where service chiefs could supposedly act independently of their commander-in-chief.
“Were the president’s appointees acting independently of him or did he give the go ahead to them? What authority does the NSA have to write directly to the INEC Chairman considering that his line of reporting is to the President who appointed him?”
The Campaign Organisation suggested that President Jonathan needed to take whatever action necessary to rectify this anarchy, adding: “either that or he needs to be more honest with Nigerians about his actual role in the election postponement.” [myad]

Where Have All Nigeria Soldiers Gone? By Emmanuel Yawe

Greenbarge Reporters

February 13, 2015

Colonel Adokwu led the first ever ECOMOG battalion that landed at Seaport in Liberia in the 80s from Yola, the then Gongola State capital, to confront Charles Taylor, the war lord who had torn Liberia into bits and pieces.
ECOMOG was General Ibrahim Babangida’s creation, a brilliant idea in crisis management in independent Africa. It was a multinational force put together by ECOWAS to stop the anarchy and human waste going on in Liberia. Never had independent Africa tried this way to sort out its problems. And here was Colonel Adokwu taking the lead to fight a kind of warfare that was not tried in Africa before.
For the months that followed, many of Charles Taylor’s men fell, over a hundred were his prisoners of war and yet the Col lost not one soldier, a record he maintained till he heroically brought his soldiers back to Yola.
On the last day of last year, I sat with the unsung hero Colonel Adokwu under a cocoa nut tree at his country home in Otukpo, Benue State. We have been friends since we met in Yola in the mid 80s. He was the battalion Commander there while I was an operative of the Military Governor’s Office.
My son, Ken and his daughter, Ene attended the Command Primary School in Yola. Twenty years later, they got married and gave us a grand son whom Adokwu named Colonel, the rank at which he retired. There could be no greater evidence of the love Adokwu has for soldiering and his grandson.
As we sat at his Otukpo home, me holding tightly to my farm fresh palm wine bottle (he does not drink) we got talking about Nigeria’s latest global scandal; a rag tag army overrunning battalions after battalions of ‘Africa’s best Army.’
“What the hell is going on with Boko Haram Colonel?” I provoked him as I enjoy doing. A spark in his eyes and then he started a long and interesting story. “An army marches on it’s stomach,” he said. “When I was appointed to lead the war in Liberia, the first thing that came to my mind was food. What are my men going to eat? I got in touch with Army Head quarters and a shipload of foodstuff was already on its way to Liberia.
“Then the arms and ammunitions which we selected after a careful study of the terrain of war and the kind of war we were to be engaged in over there.”
Those were the problems with the army headquarters. Colonel Adokwu had a bigger problem with the men he was to lead. How was he going to inform them? What would be their reaction, mood etc. How about their wives, their children?
He tackled all the problems with a bold headlong approach. The day he got the signal, he never gave room for a leak. He wanted to tell his soldiers about the movement to Liberia himself. By close of work, the bugler blew and all men and officers were assembled at the parade ground.
“I’am taking you to war. In war, some people get wounded, some get killed. But I can assure you that I will bring all of you back alive,” he thundered to his men. Amazingly, all the men responded by cheerfully singing war songs.
Then he summoned their wives. There and then he announced to them that he was taking their husbands to war. There were expressions of murmur and shock but he went on regardless. He warned them that any of them who got pregnant or procured an abortion during the period of war would be in serious trouble with him because all their husbands were going to come back alive. End of parade.
It was a day of endless celebration, the day he brought all the men back alive to the Yola barracks months later.
That was not Adokwu’s first experience in international peace keeping operations. He had been to Lebanon before in 1979 and the experience was scary. He particularly remembers the night one terrorist group tried to demolish his battalion. They never got away with it. With one of his men missing and one wounded, he made a tactical detour and then went on rampage. He opened a kind of fire on the group that he said was never seen in Lebanon before!
Before daybreak, his missing man reappeared.
Back to Boko Haram, he said, he had not been at the war front and could not say exactly what is happening. But from the information he got, Boko Haram people were using unconventional warfare while our men were using conventional tactics. It will not work for our troops.
Suddenly, the soldier in him returned as I broached the topic of condemned mutineers.
“How can you send our boys to war in Nigeria without food, without uniforms and without arms? I took boys to Lebanon. I took boys to Liberia. What the commanders are doing is criminal. Those so called mutineers shall not and will not be executed!”
He then banged the table, sending my precious palm wine bottle tumbling down. Emmanuel Okala couldn’t have been a better goalkeeper. I caught it.
On my way to his house, I had stopped at the railway GRA junction to pick some newspapers. A tall, disheveled and melancholic looking man in his 60’s approached me for alms. He spoke good English and I asked him his problem? He said he was an ex service man who fought in the Nigerian civil and has not been paid his pension for four months. I gave him the 200 Naira change from my newspaper vendour.
Col Adokwu never fought in the Nigerian civil war but the ravages of that war are all over Otukpo and his Idoma land which shares boundaries with Iboland, the heartbeat of the war. And as you move up from Otukpo up north to Tivland – Makurdi, Gboko and Vandeikya, where the civil war actually broke out at Gakem, there is nothing but poverty to see. Forget about David Mark, the veteran Senate President, Otukpo itself is a dusty, dirty town without running water and electricity. The state and Federal Governments have done nothing there. I hate the town but love the Idomas.
There is hardly any Idoma or Tiv family that did not lose a member in the war. Thousands of the tribesmen signed up in the 60’s to fight the Ibos and defend Nigeria’s unity. Today, they have nothing to show for it. The Ibo’s they fought and defeated are even better off than them.
Back to Abuja and after my mysterious illness that kept me in hospital for four weeks, I now read in the media that Chad is fighting hard, to liberate Nigerian towns from Boko Haram. I want to ask Col Adokwu a question but he is too far away in Otukpo. The only Col here is Col Yawe with his chain of computer games. He will not be able to answer my question.
Where have all our soldiers gone? [myad]

APC Hails Nigeria Army For Distancing Self From Partisan Politics

Greenbarge Reporters

February 13, 2015

All Progressives Congress (APC) Presidential Campaign Organization has commended the Nigeria armed forces for the reassurance they gave that they would be faithfully committed to its traditional and professional role rather than being exposed to undue partisanship.
The Director of Media and Publicity of the APCP Campaign Organisation, Garba Shehu, said in a statement in Abuja that the opposition party is happy with the assurance by the Defence Spokesman, Brigadier General Christopher Olukolade that the armed forces would stick to their constitutional and professional roles of protecting the territorial integrity of Nigeria rather than being diverted in this mission to partisanship.
According Garba Shehu, the reassurance by the army could not have come at a better time, adding that a politically neutral armed force is a prerequisite for free and fair elections.
He assured that APC presidential campaign holds Nigeria’s armed forces in the highest esteem, and that as long as they and other security services stick to their professional roles, they might retain public respect like every other armed forces around the world.
The campaign organisation’s spokesman also assured that the Muhammadu Buhari Presidency would be committed to improving the welfare of the armed forces more effectively for them to discharge their professional and constitutional duties. [myad]

PDP Accuses APC Of Plot To Simulate Attacks On Its Own Leaders

Greenbarge Reporters

February 13, 2015

The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) Presidential Campaign Organisation has raised the alarm on a plot by the All Progressives Congress (APC) to simulate attacks on some of its own leaders with a view to accusing the PDP of being responsible for the attacks.
The Campaign Organisation, in a statement by its Director of Media and Publicity, Chief Femi Fani-Kayode, said: “it has been brought to our attention that a section of the leadership of the All Progressive Congress (APC) has now perfected plans to simulate violent
attacks on members of their own party and then point fingers at supporters of President Goodluck Jonathan and the PDP for such attacks in order to portray us as being violent.
“As diabolical as this plan appears to be, it should come as no surprise to the Nigerian people given the antecedents of the APC.”
Fani-Kayode alleged that APC’s stock-in-trade and its hallmark is to engage in cheap propaganda and blackmail and to indulge in the most hideous form of violence, adding that the recent torching of some of the branded buses of PDP by the APC in Jos was not surprised..
“Again the attacks on the convoy of our candidate, President Goodluck Jonathan, whilst he was campaigning in Katsina, Bauchi, Taraba, Adamawa and Kaduna States were all carried out by members of the APC and the supporters and disciples of General Muhammadu Buhari.
“As an example of their sheer deceit and chicanery, there is a video of the burning of our campaign buses all over social media. This video footage showed a group of hoodlums offering songs of praise to General Muhammadu Buhari and chanting war songs whilst they indulged in a gruesome and unrestrained orgy of violence. Yet the APC still attempted to deceive Nigerians by claiming that the burning of the buses was carried out by members of the PDP in Plateau State.
“The fact of the matter is that our party was not embroiled in any violent intra-party fracas in Plateau state.”
Fani-Kayode said that PDP leaders and members in Plateau State have demonstrated the highest level of decorum and civility even in the face of sponsored violence in the state.
“It would be recalled that a serving senator (Gyang Dantong) of the Federal Republic of Nigeria lost his life in one of such sponsored acts of violence by the agents of darkness who have serially supported amnesty for terrorists. It is self-evident that those who burnt our buses in Plateau State were supporters of the APC and not members of our party.
“Yet rather than accept full responsibility for these attacks the APC quickly linked the attack on the residence of their party’s National Chairman, Chief John Odigie Oyegun, to the PDP, insinuating that there were more attacks to come.
“It has now come to our knowledge that a section of the leadership of the APC is perfecting plans to sponsor a series of simulated attacks on some key members of their own party.
“Their objective is to carry out the simulated attacks and then go public by linking supporters of our candidate, President Goodluck Jonathan, to such attacks. This is an irresponsible and dangerous path to tread and we hereby serve notice to the leaders of the APC not to play with such dangerous fire. If they insist on doing so their plan will backfire in a way that they cannot possibly comprehend and it will have far-reaching and tumultuous consequences for the fortunes of their party.”
Fani-Kayode said however that APC’s attempt at poisoning the political environment and fouling up the political space will not work. [myad]

Imo Government Still Grieves Over Military Invasion Of Government House, Wants It Investigated

Greenbarge Reporters

February 12, 2015

The Imo Government is still grieving over the alleged invasion of the Government House on February 10 by soldiers and has written a petition to the Presidency, Army Headquarters, National Security Adviser (NSA) and some human right groups urging an investigation into the matter.

A statement from the Senior Special Assistant to Governor Rochas Okorocha on Media, Sam Onwuemeodo in Owerri today said that the governor was surprised and wanted the investigate the reasons for barricading main entrance to the government House with armoured vehicles.

“Imo believes the soldiers will not have left the barracks with armoured vehicles without somebody ordering them to do so and without the person having his or her reason for doing so.

“Government is concerned with the development because there was no problem of any kind in any part of the state on that day or before it.

“There was no riot. There was no crisis. There was no clash. Then why did the army come? These are questions we will like the authorities we have petitioned, to unveil”, it said.

The statement said some workers in the government house were seriously wounded while running for safety.

It alleged that the soldiers beat up two young men they met at the gate to a state of coma and demanded the reason for the action.

When contacted, the Brigade Commander, 34 Field Artillery Brigade, Nigerian Army, Obinze, Brig. Lanre Bello said the presence of soldiers around the gate of government house was for the protection of lives and property of citizens of the state.

He said it was not to unleash attack on any citizens as alleged by the State Government.

“The army received distress calls that innocent widows on peaceful protest were being attacked and quickly moved to the scene to stop the attack and disperse the crowd.

“If such steps were not taken, the situation would have been turned to a wide blown crisis in the city.

“Nobody was attacked by any soldier during the period they were there as other security agencies such as the police and SSS were equally present at the scene.” [myad]

General Muhammadu Buhari Meets Northern Christian Leaders

Greenbarge Reporters

February 12, 2015

R-L- Christ Life Evangelist Ministry Jos, Bishop Daniel Oboni, Chairman Northern Christian Leaders Eagle Eye Forum, Pastor Aminchi Habu, APC Presidential Candidate, General Muhammadu Buhari, Vice Presidential Candidate, Prof Yemi Osinbajo, Bishop Unlimited Mercy and Glory Church Gombe, Bishop Musa Fomson and Divine Latter Times Gospel Mission, Dr Sunday Garba as Northern Christian Leaders forum give support to General Buhari in Abuja on February 12 2015. [myad]

Super Eagles Move A Step Forward In FIFA Rankings

Greenbarge Reporters

February 12, 2015

Nigeria Super Eagles have moved up one place ahead in the monthly FIFA ranking despite not participating in grade A games last month. The Super Eagles are now ranked 42nd in the world and 7th in Africa after accumulating 664 points .

Nigeria missed out on the 2015 Africa Cup of Nations in Equatorial Guinea, failing to defend their title and also not being able to garner points accrual from the tournament.

However, Nigeria’s homebased Eagles played two friendly matches last month in Dubai, losing 1-0 to Ivory Coast and beating Yemen 2-0, with the matches aimed at making up for the team’s inactivity in January.

Meanwhile, the top three teams in Africa remained unchanged: Algeria, Ivory Coast and Ghana in that order.

Ghana by virtue of reaching the finals of the Nations Cup tournament moved twelve places in the overall world rankings to 25th position. While Ivory Coast who won the 2015 Nations Cup title are now 20th in the world.

Despite crashing out in the quarterfinals, Algeria is still the highest ranked African team in 18th position.

Equatorial Guinea who finished fourth at the 2015 African football showpiece are the highest movers after climbing 69 places up the ladder to the 49th position in the world.

There is no change in the top seven positions, with Germany, Argentina and Colombia still the top three teams in the world. [myad]

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