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Chelsea win Europa League

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Branislav Ivanovic scored an injury time winner to give Chelsea a 2-1 victory over Benfica in the Europa League final in Amsterdam on Wednesday.

Fernando Torres opened the scoring for Chelsea on the hour mark before Oscar Cardozo levelled on 68 minutes from the penalty spot.

Club captain John Terry sat the game out with an ankle injury, but just as he had done after last season’s Champions League final, which he missed through suspension, he donned his full kit to lift the trophy alongside fellow Chelsea stalwart Frank Lampard.

“It’s a great feeling,” said Ivanovic. “This team deserved this, because we have had a very difficult season and a lot of games.”

chelsea players celebrate Ivanovic goal

chelsea players celebrate Ivanovic goal

Victory made Chelsea the first team to simultaneously hold the Champions League and Europa League titles, although they will relinquish their Champions League crown in 10 days.

More lasting is the statistic that they are only the fourth club to have claimed Europe’s three major trophies — including the now-defunct Cup Winners’ Cup — after Ajax, Bayern Munich and Juventus.

Chelsea’s interim manager Rafael Benitez, meanwhile, joins Giovanni Trapattoni as one of only two coaches to have won the trophy with two different clubs, following his 2004 success with Valencia.

“That was a great performance in the second half, against a very good team,” said the Spaniard, who has already fulfilled his primary objective of qualifying the club for next season’s Champions League, despite lingering opposition from fans.

“The players have worked so hard, all season. I am proud — it was not easy. I’m really pleased, really proud.”

The manner of defeat was cruel on Jorge Jesus’ enterprising side and means that Benfica have now lost seven consecutive European finals since claiming their last major continental crown in 1962.

“The Benfica fans were better than the Chelsea fans,” said Jesus. “They deserved a Benfica victory for their passion and their feelings and the patriotism they showed.

“This defeat is difficult for me because of the Benfica fans. For most of the 93 minutes, Benfica was always better than Chelsea.”

Benfica had seen their Portuguese title hopes seriously compromised in a 2-1 stoppage-time loss to Porto in their previous game, but they banished any fears about their mental state with an assured start to the game that bordered on insouciance at times.

Indeed, so authoritative were Benfica, and so lacklustre Chelsea, that only an apparent inability to shoot at the appropriate moment prevented Jesus’ side from taking the lead before half-time.

Cardozo headed an early chance over the bar, Eduardo Salvio saw a shot blocked, Rodrigo miscued twice during a frantic goal-mouth scramble, and Nicolas Gaitan twice fired over after neat approach play.

With languid former Chelsea man Nemanja Matic orchestrating Benfica’s attacks from a deep position, the English side were struggling to find a foothold.

They did not test Benfica goalkeeper Artur until Oscar put an effort straight at him in the 27th minute, although the Brazilian was almost deceived by a swerving Lampard shot that he palmed over the bar in unorthodox fashion seven minutes before half-time.

Cardozo had a header ruled out for offside early in the second half, and although the call was correct, it was extremely marginal.

Salvio saw a header fielded by Petr Cech in the 59th minute, but within seconds, the ball was in the Benfica net.

Cech’s long throw down the centre was helped on by Juan Mata and Torres showed superb strength and composure to hold off Luisao and then round Artur, delaying to send the goalkeeper down before rolling the ball home.

It was a Chelsea smash-and-grab goal plucked straight from last season’s Champions League textbook, but the lead was to last only eight minutes.

Cesar Azpilicueta handled Salvio’s header just inside the Chelsea penalty area and Cardozo drilled his spot-kick into the middle of the goal to claim his seventh goal in this season’s competition.

Cech had to produce a finger-tip save to prevent a half-volleyed lob by Cardozo from dipping beneath the crossbar, before Lampard almost gave the game a fairytale late finish with a 25-yard pile-driver that hit the bar.

Extra time beckoned when the fourth official raised his board to show three minutes of injury time, only for Ivanovic to send a header arcing over Artur from Mata’s corner and break Benfica’s hearts.

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Posted in Nigeria News. A DisNaija.Com network.

Source: PM News

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Kano Transfers Over 1,000 Almajiris To Different States Amidst COVID-19 Pandemic

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The Kano State Government on Saturday said it has transferred 1,098 ‘almajiris’ to different states of the country.

The commissioner for local government, Murtala Garo, disclosed this while presenting a report before the state’s task force on COVID-19 at the government house, Kano.

Almajiris are children who are supposed to be learning Islamic studies while living with their Islamic teachers. Majority of them, however, end up begging on the streets of Northern Nigeria. They constitute a large number of Nigeria’s over 10 million out-of-school children.

Mr Garo said the Kano government transported 419 almajiris to Katsina, 524 to Jigawa and 155 to Kaduna. He said all of them tested negative for coronavirus before leaving the Kano State.

Despite the coronavirus test done in Kano for the almajiris, the Jigawa government earlier said it would quarantine for two weeks all the almajiris that recently arrived from Kano.

Mr Garo said another 100 almajiris scheduled to be taken to Bauchi State also tested negative to COVID-19.

In a remark, Governor Abdullahi Ganduje said the COVID-19 situation in Kano was getting worse. He appealed for a collaborative effort to curtail the spread of the virus in the state.

Mr Ganduje, who commended residents for complying with the lockdown imposed in the state, said the decision was taken to halt the spread of the virus.

Kano State, as of Saturday night, has 77 coronavirus cases, according to the Nigeria Centre for Disease Control.

The decision to transfer the Kano almajiris is part of the agreement reached between Northern governors that almajiris in each state be transferred to their states of origin.

However, even before the latest agreement by the governors, the Kano government had been transferring almajiris to other states and neighbouring countries after it banned street begging in the state, most populous in Northern Nigeria.

Despite the transfers, however, no concrete step has been taken to ensure such children do not return to Kano streets as there is freedom of movement across Nigeria although interstate travel was recently banned to check the spread of the coronavirus.

 

Sourced From: Premium Times Nigeria

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COVID-19: ‘Bakassi Boys’ Foil Attempt To Smuggle 24 Women Into Abia In Container

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By Ugochukwu Alaribe

Operatives of the Abia State Vigilante Service, AVS, popularly known as ‘Bakassi Boys’ have arrested 24 market women hidden in a container truck, at Ekwereazu Ngwa, the boundary community between Abia and Akwa Ibom states.

The market women, said to be  from Akwa Ibom State, were on their way to Aba, when they were arrested with the truck driver and two of his conductors for violating the lockdown order by the state government.

Driver of the truck, Moses Asuquo, claimed he was going to Aba to purchase stock fish, but decided to assist the market women, because they were stranded.

A vigilante source told Sunday Vanguard that the vehicle was impounded while the market women were sent back to Akwa Ibom State.

Commissioner for Home Land Security, Prince Dan Okoli, who confirmed the incident, said that  smuggling of people into the state poses great threat to the state government’s efforts to contain the spread of COVID- 19.

 

Sourced From: Vanguard News

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Woman Kills Her Maid Over Salary Request

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Operatives of the State Criminal Investigation and Intelligence Department (SCIID), Yaba of the Lagos State police command have arrested one Mrs Nene Steve for allegedly killing her maid, Joy Adole

The maid was allegedly beaten to death by Nene for requesting for her salary at their residence located at 18, Ogundola Street, Bariga area in Lagos.

Narrating the incident, Philips Ejeh, an elder brother to the deceased said that he was sad when they informed him that his sister was beaten to death.

He explained that the deceased was an indigene of Benue State brought to Lagos through an agent and started working with her as a maid  in January 2020.

‘’She reported that her boss refused to pay her and anytime she asked for her salary she will start beating her.

She was making an attempt to leave the place but due to the total lockdown she remained there until Sunday when her boss said she caught her stealing noodles and this led to her serious beating and death,’’ Ejeh said.

He called on Lagos State Government and well- meaning people in the country to help them in getting justice for the victim.

The police spokesman, Bala Elkana, stated that the woman and her husband came to Bariga Police  Station to a report that their house girl had committed suicide.

Detectives were said to have visited the house and suspected foul play with the position of the rope and bruises all over the body which confirmed that the girl had been tortured to death and the boss decided to hang up the girl to make it look like suicide.

He said: “The police moved on with their investigation and found a lot of sign of violence on her body that she has been tortured before a rope was put on her neck.’’

He added that the police removed the corpse and deposited it in the mortuary for autopsy to further ascertain the cause of the death.

Elkana said the matter has been transferred from Bariga police station to Panti for further investigation while the couple have been arrested and will be charged to court.

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Boko Haram Attacks: Buhari Summons Urgent Meeting Of Service Chiefs

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President Buhari and the Service Chiefs in a meeting. (File photo)

Ostensibly alarmed by the latest killings of dozens of soldiers by Boko Haram insurgents, President Muhammadu Buhari has summoned an urgent meeting of Service Chiefs to find ways to stop the trend. 

He has also dispatched the Minister of Defence, Mansur Dan Ali, to the neighbouring Republic of Chad for an urgent meeting with President Idris Deby and his defence counterpart. 

Knowledgeable sources said in Abuja on Friday that the president is worried by on the deterioration of security situation on the Nigeria – Chad Border that has led to the recently increased Boko Haram terrorism in the area.

The sources which did not want to be named in Abuja said: “Nigeria has a Chad  problem in the Multi-National Joint Task Force (MNJTF) put together to secure the Lake Chad basin areas and repeal the Boko Haram terrorist attacks against all the countries neighbouring the Lake.”

The sources noted that Chad is believed to be having their own internal security challenges and this has reportedly led to their pulling away their own troops manning their own border around Lake Chad,  saying: “That lacuna is being exploited by the Boko Haram terrorists, who go in and out of Nigeria, Niger and Cameroon to launch terrorist acts.  This is a clear illustration of the fact that terrorism is beyond national borders.”

When contacted, the Senior Special Assistant to the President on Media and Publicity, Garba Shehu, confirmed that the Defence Minister is going to Chad but said he is unaware of the purpose. 

Meanwhile, the military authorities are said to be in the process of identifying the families of the latest victims with a view to making contact with them. 

Credible sources revealed that it is the reason the president is yet to make any pronouncement on the matter. 

“The President has called an urgent meeting with the Service Chiefs, as well as the fact that families of the latest victims of the Boko Haram are being identified and contacts made before a government pronouncement on the tragic attacks. This, it is understood, is the reason for the silence of the government over the incident,” the source said. 

 

Sourced From: Tribune

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