Diamond Celebrities

Lionel Messi clinched his sixth Ballon d’Or award on Monday after yet another scintillating season for the Argentine. The 32-year-old saw off competition from the likes of Juventus forward Cristiano Ronaldo and Liverpool defender Virgil van Dijk to win the prestigious accolade, which is voted for by journalists. Messi won the award for the first […]

The National Universities Commission has said it has uncovered about 100 fake professors across Nigerian universities. The NUC Executive Secretary, Prof Abubakar Rasheed, stated this in the November edition of the commission’s bulletin, obtained by Punch correspondent. The ES noted that the commission published the details of the fake professors on its website and also […]

Femi Falana, a human rights lawyer, has accused the federal government of disobeying valid court orders in Nigeria while it complies with orders from Britain. Granting a stay of execution for a $9.6 billion judgement awarded against Nigeria in favour of Process & Industrial Development (P&ID) Limited, Christopher Butcher, judge of a commercial court in […]

The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) has seized the passport of Allen Onyema, chief executive officer of Air Peace, over alleged bank fraud and money laundering in the US. The Nation reports that Onyema’s passports will be in custody of the anti-graft commission as investigations continue and his movements, temporarily restricted. In November, US authorities had […]

Nine people are dead after a plane crashed shortly after takeoff Saturday in Chamberlain, South Dakota, authorities said. Among the nine dead are two children and the pilot, Brule County States Attorney Theresa Maule Rossow said in a statement. There were 12 people on the plane. The three survivors were taken to Sioux Falls for […]

Governor Nasir el-Rufai of Kaduna State said on Sunday he never prevented the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission from performing its functions as widely reported; rather he  went to court to clear his name. In a statement by El-Rufai’s counsel, A.U. Mustapha (SAN), the governor of Kaduna State said he approached the court in 2009 […]

The Nigerian Governors’ Forum (NGF) says state governors are not the sole target of a comment by First Lady Aisha Buhari that things are ‘getting out of hand’ in the country without the governments doing much about it. Mrs Buhari, who has criticised various government organs in the past, took a swipe at the governors, […]

The biggest challenge to Nigeria is “…from the mindsets and entities rooted in the idea of violence as a means to change,” a presidential aide has said. Garba Shehu, spokesperson to President Muhammad Buhari, said this in a statement Sunday night. Mr Shehu said he was reacting to a statement by a former military chief, […]

The wife of the president, Mrs Aisha Buhari has called for the regulation of social media, noting that China with about 1.3bn people had done so, stressing that many people could not visit their villages on account of fake news broadcasts. Mrs Buhari spoke on Friday at the Nigerian Supreme Council for Islamic Affairs (NSCIA) […]

People in China are now required to have their faces scanned when registering new mobile phone services, as the authorities seek to verify the identities of the country’s hundreds of millions of internet users. The regulation, announced in September, was due to come into effect Sunday. The government says it wants to “protect the legitimate […]

A former Minister of Petroleum Resources, Diezani Alison-Madueke, lost her ability to speak and subsequently fell into a coma due to the complications of the cancer she had, her husband has said. Diezani’s husband, Rear Admiral Alison Madueke (retd.), said this in his recently published book titled, ‘Riding the Storms with God on My Side’. […]

Former President Goodluck Jonathan on Saturday warned politicians to stop killing people for the sake of gaining political office. Jonathan was speaking against the backdrop of violence that trailed the elections in Bayelsa, Kogi States as well as other African countries in recent times. The immediate past president, who was honoured with an honorary degree […]

The Federal Government has re-assured Nigerians of its commitment towards ending HIV/AIDS by the year 2030, in line with the global target. The Minister of Health, Dr. Osagie Ehanire said at a press conference organised to mark this year’s World AIDS Day in Abuja that  government had redoubled its efforts to reduce the spread of […]

The First Lady, Hajiya Aisha Buhari, has alerted that things are getting out of hand in the country, noting that her husband alone cannot handle the challenges of the nation and admonished the political class to work together to bail the country of out of the challenges. She also berated state governors for failing to […]

A military court in Suriname sentenced President Desi Bouterse to 20 years in prison Friday over the executions of political opponents when he was the South American country’s dictator in the 1980s. Bouterse, 74, is on a state visit to China and will appeal the judgement when he returns next week, his lawyer Irvin Kanhai […]

Suspected money launderer, Ismaila Mustapha, alias Mompha has been granted a bail of N100 million by a Federal High Court in Lagos, Southwest Nigeria. He was granted bail on Friday after he was arraigned for alleged N33 billion fraud. The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC had arrested Mompha on 19 October at the Nnamdi […]

The Federal Road Safety Corps has clarified its position on the use of Google maps while driving. This clarification is coming after Nigerians criticised the corps for comments credited to the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) sector commander, Ayuba Gora, on Wednesday. The News Agency of Nigeria on Wednesday reported that Mr Gora said driving with […]

President Muhammadu Buhari will begin a two-legged trip out of Abuja on Friday (today), first to Malabo, Equatorial Guinea,  for a summit and another five-day visit to his country home, Daura, in Katsina State. He will be away till Wednesday next week. The Presidency explained on Thursday that Buhari would be in Malabo to attend […]