Today's Headlines: Tribunal: Atiku denies congratulating Tinubu, says won’t validate mandate banditry, My rivalry with Messi is over, says Cristiano Ronaldo
Tribunal: Atiku denies congratulating Tinubu, says won’t validate mandate banditry
The Presidential Candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party in the February 25, 2023 election, Atiku Abubakar, has issued a disclaimer of a statement purporting that he has congratulated President Bola Tinubu, over the outcome of the election petition tribunal in Abuja.
Source: Vanguard
Reacting to a purported statement allegedly issued by Atiku, the Media Adviser to the former Vice President, Mr. Paul Ibe, said the statement is fake and part of an orchestrated plot by those desperately looking for validation for the usurpation of the mandate of Nigerians. Ibe said, “ Atiku couldn’t have validated electoral banditry because doing so would have amounted to a rape on the conscience of Nigerians who have struggled for years to entrench electoral integrity.
“If their conscience is clear and they are convinced that their victory is valid, they don’t have to blackmail their political opponents into congratulating them through fake news.” “Why should a man be desperate for validation? Does truth require validation? Why should you issue a congratulatory statement and attribute it to Atiku if your conscience is not troubled by the electoral heist you have perpetrated,” he queried.
My rivalry with Messi over, says Ronaldo
Portuguese forward, Cristiano Ronaldo has declared an end to the rivalry between him and Argentine forward, Lionel Messi.
Source: Punch papers
Addressing a press conference on Wednesday before training with the national side at Oeiras, on the outskirts of Lisbon, ahead of upcoming European Championship qualifiers, the Al Nassr forward said the “rivalry is over”. Both Messi and Ronaldo stayed at the top of the football chain for 15 years, dating back to when Ronaldo won his first Ballon d’Or in 2008 and Messi his first in 2009.
Besides the Portuguese and Argentine, there have been only two others to lift the most coveted individual trophy in football since then – Luka Modric in 2018 and Karim Benzema in 2022. He said, “I don’t see things like that; the rivalry is over. It was a healthy rivalry, and the spectators liked it a lot. “Whoever likes Cristiano Ronaldo doesn’t have to hate Messi and vice versa, because they are both very good. We’ve done well; we have changed the history of football, and we’ll keep on doing it. We are respected all over the world; that’s the most important thing.
Miyetti Allah Protests Profiling As Criminals, Kidnappers
Members of the Miyetti Allah Cattle Breeders’ Association (MACBAN) in the Southeast and South-South zones have decried their profiling by some Nigerians as criminals and kidnappers operating in the southern part of the country.
Source: Leadership
The group also described as false the suspicion that they are in the southern part of Nigeria for Fulani territorial expansion. The members said they left their native homes to conduct the business of cattle breeding and do not engage in criminalities as erroneously held by some of their landlords in southern Nigeria.
They, however, accepted that there is no group of persons that are completely devoid of some bad eggs in their midst, but that they have been purging themselves of such identified persons. MACBAN submitted at a crucial meeting of its joint executive council from South East and South-South geopolitical zones in Enugu, yesterday.
Insurgency: 35,000 Persons Killed In North East – UNHCR
United Nations High Commission for Refugees (UNHCR) says no fewer than 35,000 people have been killed since the inception of the insurgency in the North-East in 2009 to August 2023.
Source: Leadership
Mrs. Elsie Mills-Tetty, UNHCR’s Head of the Adamawa Office disclosed this at a training for military personnel on human rights, humanitarian principles, and civilians’ protection in Yola, Adamawa State yesterday. The Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that the training was organized by the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) in collaboration with UNHCR.
Mills-Tetty, who was represented by Umar Abdullahi, Assistant Protect Officer, said this was according to the “Global Center for Responsibility to Protect” report of August 2023. According to her, the implication of these acts to the economic and social development of Borno, Adamawa, Yobe, and Nigeria at large can never be overemphasized.
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