Talk911 Nigeria: July 2016

Sunday 31 July 2016

Alexandre Lacazette remains a target for Arsenal

Over to you, Arsenal: Lyon boss admits Lacazette may move before August 31

Arsenal have received a boost in the race to sign Alexandre Lacazette after Lyon manager Bruno Genesio admitted anything can happen before August 31.

Last week, The Ligue 1 outfit announced that they had rejected the Gunners’ initial £29million bid for Lacazette and the club appeared confident of keeping hold of the 25-year-old striker for the forthcoming season.

However, Lyon boss Genesio has since given Arsene Wenger hope of landing the France international by stating that there are some offers they simply can’t turn down.

‘He can leave if Lyon want him to. There are some offers that you cannot refuse,’ Genesio told Talk911 Nigeria.

‘My desire as manager is that the best players stay and Lacazette is very important for the team.

2 more Nigerians killed in South Africa

President Jacob Zuma of South Africa

Mr Ikechukwu Anyene, President, Nigeria Union in South Africa, has confirmed that two Nigerians were killed in Johannesburg, Gauteng Province.

This is coming barely two weeks after a South African guard killed a Nigerian businessman in the country.

Anyene disclosed on Sunday in Port Harcourt in a telephone interview from Pretoria that the two men were killed on Friday, July 29, at different areas of Johannesburg.

He said that the first victim, Gideon Ogalaonye, an indigene of Onitsha, Anambra, was allegedly shot dead at 7 p.m. while on a visit to the residence of his daughters.

FORCES loyal to Senate President, Bukola Saraki, and the All Progressives Congress (APC) are set for a major battle ahead of Senate’s resumption in September following indications that a former president had advised President Muhammadu Buhari to remove the Senate leadership by all means possible.

Some online outfits reported last week that the visit of former President Olusegun Obasanjo to the Presidential Villa last week Centred on the need for the president to remove the leadership of the Senate to stave off distractions to his government.

Ground forces of the military Joint Task Force yesterday moved into the dreaded enclaves of the notorious pipeline vandals at the Arepo area of Ogun State and parts of Lagos State to mop up any remaining resistance by the militant groups who had been terrorising the areas since the last few weeks. This followed three days of sustained aerial bombing of the militants’ hideouts in the creeks and mangroves, Talk911 Nigeria has learnt.

There was massive movement of residents of Kaiama, the home town of late Major Jasper Adaka Boro in Kolokuma Opukuma Local Government Area of Bayelsa State following the threat by Adaka Boro Avengers to declare Niger Delta Republic in that community this Monday.

The residents were said to be fleeing the community for the fear of military attacks to quell the proposed rebellion by the militant group.

Bronze Head of Queen Idia, Benin Sixteenth century AD, on display at British Museum, London

The two centuries of ownership crisis between United Kingdom and Greece, over controversial Parthenon Marbles, is resolved as a result of Brexit, hopes may appear on the horizon for return of artefacts of Nigerian origin incarcerated in the British Museum, London. Currently, what has been described as “a cross party group” of British MPs has reopened bid to return the Parthenon marbles to Greece as part of effort to keep healthy relationship with Athens after Brexit.

Mr Jerry Oche, District Manager, Nigeria Railway Corporation (NRC), Lagos State, has warned commuters to desist from riding on the roof of train in motion, describing the action as “suicidal.’’

He gave the warning on Sunday in Lagos while reacting to overcrowding in trains and some commuters who risk their lives by riding on the roof of a train in motion.

He urged such commuters to demand for refund of their fare when the train they are about to board is fully loaded.

IOC President Thomas Bach speaks during the IOC Executive Board Meeting on July 30, 2016 in Rio de Janeiro. Pascal Le Segretain / POOL / AFP

International Olympic Committee chief Thomas Bach on Sunday rejected criticism of his handling of the Russia drugs scandal, taking a thinly veiled jab at the World Anti-Doping Agency’s reaction.

The bombshell publication of a WADA-commissioned report this month which detailed a vast state-backed Russian scheme to evade drug-testers, left the IOC scrambling to formulate a policy for Russian athletes aiming to complete in Rio de Janeiro.

German President Joachim Gauck speaks during a commemoration ceremony at the Bavarian parliament in Munich, southern Germany, on July 31, 2016 for the victims of a shooting rampage in Munich on July 22. Addressing the Bavarian parliament in the second of the day's memorial events, Gauck said attackers and terrorists "will not force us to hate as they hate." CHRISTOF STACHE / AFP

The city of Munich on Sunday paid tribute to nine victims of a shooting rampage, with German Chancellor Angela Merkel and President Joachim Gauck attending the memorials that called on people to resist slipping into fear and hatred.

Christians, Jews and Muslims came together at the city’s Gothic landmark church Frauenkirche for a non-denominational service, at which Cardinal Reinhard Marx said mistrust and fear must not have the last word.

General Overseer of the Redeemed Christian Church of God (RCCG), Pastor Enoch Adeboye, has revealed why he will not seek vengeance against killers of Abuja preacher, Deaconess Eunice Olawale Elisha.

Forty-two-year old Mrs Elisha who was hacked to death by religious fanatics on June 9 at Gbazango-West area of Kubwa, a satellite town in the Federal Capital Territory while preaching early in the morning was an assistant pastor at the RCCG, Divine Touch parish, Old NEPA road, Phase 4, Kubwa.

Here are photos of the three Nigerians; Seck Osmane, Humphrey Jefferson Ejike, Michael Titus Igweh who were executed by firing squad in on July 29th in Indonesia. An Indonesian, named Freddy Budiman, was also executed for drug trafficking.

Military Intensify Attacks On Militants Camp In Ogun, At Least 100 Militants Feared Dead

According to latest reports, at least 100 suspected militants have been killed after the Nigerian military, on Saturday, continued the aerial bombardment of Fatola, the base of militants and pipeline vandals in the Arepo area of Ogun State. According to a Punch correspondent who was around the scene of the incident at the time, the attack started at about 12pm and lasted for about 30 minutes as at least eight missiles were fired by a fighter jet which flew across the creek at intervals.

Reports emerging from the current dialogue between the Federal Government and the Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta (MEND) suggests that they have reached far-reaching compromises, including the release of former militant leader, Henry Okah, in prison in South Africa and Charles Okah, incarcerated in Nigeria.

An official of Diamond Bank, Damola Otuyalo, has explained to the Economic and

Financial Crimes Commission how he personally handed over N1.2bn to former Minister of State for Defence, Senator Musiliu Obanikoro, and his son, Gbolahan.

Palestinian armed with a knife charged at Israeli soldiers on the outskirts of the city of Nablus in the occupied West Bank on Sunday and was shot dead, the Israeli army said.

“An assailant armed with a knife exited his vehicle and charged (at) soldiers at the entrance to Nablus,” a statement said.

Migrants sit in their boat during a rescue operation by Italian Navy vessels off the coast

The Italian navy on Sunday said it had recovered the bodies of two people in an operation that, along aid agencies, had helped pick up 6,000 people since Thursday.

Navy ships patrolling off Libya intervened to help four rubber dinghies and an overcrowded fishing boat, it said.

The Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta (MEND) and the Federal Government, currently engaged in a dialogue through the oil companies and security agencies to end renewed bombings in the oil-rich Niger Delta, seem to have reached far-reaching compromises, including the possible release of a former militant leader, Henry Okah, from prison in South Africa, and his brother, Charles Okah, incarcerated in Nigeria