Cristiano Ronaldo sends message ‘women’ in his life

Juventus forward, Cristiano Ronaldo on Friday joined the world in celebrating the International Women’s Day.

The International Women’s Day is marked world over on March 8.

Ronaldo took to his verified Twitter page to appreciate and celebrate women for their role in nation-building.

He wrote: “Happy International Woman Day to all women and a special kiss to the women of my life!”

Ronaldo will on Friday night hope to lead Juventus to victory when they tackle Udinese in the Serie A fixture.

Juventus are currently on top of the Serie A table with 72 points from 26 games.

The Old Lady are 16 points ahead of second-placed Napoli on the Italian top-flight league table.

- DAILY POST

Mourinho praises Ole for 'incredible' Utd win

 Mourinho says Manchester United's "phenomenal" Champions League victory against Paris Saint-Germain is testament to the impact his successor Ole Gunnar Solskjaer has enjoyed.

United became the first team in the history of the European Cup to overturn a 2-0 first-leg home deficit as Marcus Rashford's stoppage-time VAR penalty sealed a memorable comeback in Paris on Wednesday.

Mourinho's former side are through to the quarter-finals of Europe's top-tier competition for the first time in five years and he was full of praise for the Norwegian caretaker boss.

The dramatic win followed Ajax's shock success at another of the Portuguese's former clubs Real Madrid and speaking to RT, he was asked to choose his 'Special One' from the midweek European matches.

"In terms of players, I was immediately thinking about [Dusan] Tadic, because he was a key player in that amazing match," Mourinho said.

"But I think independent of the performances, Ajax and Manchester United results are phenomenal results, and if the responsibility in the bad days is for the managers, the responsibility of the good days is then also for the managers.

"So for me, [Erik] ten Hag from Ajax and Solskjaer from Manchester United. Incredible results, so credit to them."

Real's defeat to Ajax followed back-to-back El Clasico defeats and increased pressure on manager Santiago Solari.

Former Los Blancos president Ramon Calderon told Sky Sports News that Mourinho is the first choice if there was a change in the Bernabeu dugout, but the 56-year-old, who left Real in 2013, says he is "not desperate to work at all".

"Honestly I don't know, speculations are speculations," he said.

"I never hide it, I'm in a very calm situation. I'm not desperate to work at all, I'm studying, I'm doing things that I can't do when I'm working.

"I'm on this side of the cameras, which is a good perspective for me too.

"I don't know, probably I hope to be working in the summer. Working happily in the next pre-season, June, July.

"But there is nothing at all to say. I promise if one day there is anything to say, I will let you know."

- SKY SPORTS

Ranieri named Roma boss until June

Claudio Ranieri is back in management after taking over at Serie A side Roma.

The 67-year-old Italian was sacked by Fulham last week after recording just three wins from 17 Premier League games in charge.

But Ranieri has been handed a swift return to the dugout for what will be his second spell in charge of Roma.

He replaces Eusebio Di Francesco, who was sacked on Thursday following their Champions League exit against Porto.

Ranieri, who was born and raised in Rome and supported the club as a youngster, previously had an 18-month spell as head coach between 2009 and 2011 and steered them to a second-place finish.

He told the club’s website: “I’m delighted to be coming back home. When Roma call you, it’s impossible to say no.”

Ranieri memorably led Leicester to the Premier League title in 2016 but his reputation nosedived following his struggles with Fulham.

However, Roma director Francesco Totti has backed the former Chelsea, Valencia and Monaco boss to ensure they qualify for next season’s Champions League.

“Claudio’s from the city, he’s a Roma fan but more than that, he’s one of the most experienced coaches in world football,” said Totti.

“What we need now is a safe pair of hands to guide us back into the top four and ensure that we are playing Champions League football again next season.

“We have 12 games left and we need to win as many of them as possible.”

Roma are currently fifth in Serie A, three points outside the top four.

Earlier in the day Roma announced that their sporting director Monchi had left the club by mutual agreement.

The 50-year-old was strongly linked with a move to Arsenal prior to his exit from the Serie A club.

Roma chief executive Guido Fienga said: “I want to put on record our thanks to Monchi for his dedication during his time at the club and we wish him all the best for his future endeavours in football.”

Frederic Massara will look after the club’s sporting operations following Monchi’s departure.

- PA

1,538 Nigerians died in road accidents in 3 months

The National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) said no fewer than 1,538 Nigerians died in road accidents in the fourth quarter of 2018.

The NBS Road Transport Data for the fourth Quarter, 2018 posted on its website said a total of 2,532 road accidents were recorded in the period under review.

The report said 92 per cent (1,422) of the 1,538 people that died were adults, while the remaining eight per cent (116 people) were children.

It said that 79 per cent (1,209) of the figure that died were males, while 21 per cent (329) were females.

Similarly, the bureau said a total of 8,406 Nigerians were recorded to be injured in road accidents in thet period.

The report said that 93 per cent (7,815) of the 8,406 injured persons were adult, while the remaining seven per cent (591) were children.

It said 74 per cent (6,194) that got injured in the quarter under review were males, while 26 per cent (2,212) were females.

It, however, attributed speed violation as the major cause of road accidents in the fourth quarter, 2018 which accounted for 52 per cent of the total road accidents reported.

It said dangerous driving and wrongful overtaking followed closely as they both accounted for nine per cent and eight per cent of the total road accidents.

In addition, the report said estimated vehicle population in the country as at fourth quarter, 2018 was put at 11.82 million with the total population estimate of the country put at 198 million in 2018.

According to the report, Nigeria’s vehicle per population ratio is put at 0.06.

Meanwhile, data on the category of vehicles involved in road accidents in the quarter reflected that 60.18 per cent of vehicles were commercial (2,407).

It said 38.30 per cent (1,532) of the vehicles involved in road accidents were private, while 1.50 per cent (60) were government and the diplomatic had one.

The report said a total of 185,883 national drivers licenses were produced in the quarter under review.

It said Lagos and FCT produced the highest number of drivers’ license, while Zamfara and Kebbi states produced the least number of national drivers’ license.

- PM NEWS

Maradona accepts paternity of 3 Cuban children

Argentina’s 1986 World Cup soccer winning captain, Diego Maradona, has three children in Cuba and will travel to the country to legally recognise them, his lawyer told Argentine media.

Maradona, 58, now a technical director at Mexican club Dorados de Sinaloa, has five children from other relationships with different women.

Lawyer Matias Morla said that Maradona would travel to Cuba in the middle of the year and would do paternity tests.

“We are going to do the DNA tests. They are from different women and Diego will recognise them when he returns to Cuba,” Morla said.

He said he was in contact with the children. He did not identify them.

The lawyer said that the claims were going through the Cuban legal system, but that Maradona, one of the greatest soccer players of all time, planned to give the children his surname in the near future.

Maradona spent four years in Havana from 2000 to shake an addiction to drugs.

Cuba has strict penalties for drug possession and is known in the region for deploying doctors and humanitarian aid to countries in need.

During that time, he developed an unlikely friendship with Fidel Castro, including getting a tattoo of the late Cuban revolutionary’s face on his calf.

Castro would call on him early in the morning to talk about politics or sports and encourage him to push toward a full recovery.

However, with no press hounding him, Maradona enjoyed Havana’s night-life and frequented its best clubs.

After his marriage broke up, he was frequently seen with teenage Cuban women, sometimes one on each arm.

Morla has previously said that Maradona could have more children from his time in Cuba.

“I’m afraid of Cuba; I hope it’s one (child) … he was there a long time, he was single and behaved badly,” Morla said on a television show in 2018

- PM NEWS

MADAM CORRUPTION !! Supreme Court okays interim forfeiture of Patience Jonathan’s $8.4m

The Supreme Court on Friday backed an order of interim forfeiture made by the Lagos Division of the Federal High Court in respect of the sum of $8.4m linked to the wife of former President Goodluck Jonathan, Mrs Patience Jonathan.

The five-man panel of the apex court led by Justice Dattijo Muhammad, in a unanimous judgment, dismissed the ex-first lady’s appeal and directed her to return to the Federal High Court to show cause why the funds should not be permanently forfeited to the government.

The court also rejected her prayer to strike down the provisions of Section 17 of the Advanced Fee Fraud Act and Other Fraud-Related Offences Act, which was relied on by the Federal High Court to issue the order of interim forfeiture.

In upholding the decision of the Court of Appeal in Lagos, which had affirmed the Federal High Court’s interim order, Justice Kumai Aka’ahs, in the lead judgment of the apex court said, “I do not find any reason to interfere with the decision of the lower court”.

“Appellant is to go back to the trial court to show cause why the interim order should not be made permanent,” he added.

Channels Tv reports that the lead judgment was read on behalf of Justice Aka’ahs by Justice Ejembi Eko, who is also a member of the panel.

The EFCC had last year approached the Federal High Court in Lagos with an ex-parte application seeking the forfeiture of the sum of $8,435,788.84 and other sums in various bank accounts linked to the wife of the former president.

The anti-graft agency, in its application anchored on Section 17 of Advance Fee Fraud Act, had urged the court to grant an order of interim forfeiture of the funds which they said were suspected to be proceeds of unlawful activities.

Patience Jonathan and others including some organisations were joined in the said ex parte application as respondents.

Justice Mojisola Olatoregun of the Federal High Court in Lagos had on April 20, 2018 granted the ex parte order.

She also ordered the EFCC to publish the court’s order in any major national newspaper to enable the respondents or anyone interested in the funds to appear before the court to show cause within 14 days why the final order of forfeiture of the said funds should not be made in favour of the Federal Government of Nigeria.

- PM NEWS

SICK NATION !! EFCC arrests Okorocha’s AG for laundering N1.05bn to buy votes for son-in-law

The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC has arrested the Accountant-General of Imo State, Uzoho Casmir, for allegedly helping Imo State Governor, Rochas Okorocha, to launder N1.05 billion for the governorship and assembly elections on Saturday.

A statement from the EFCC, Enugu Zonal Office, on Friday said it arrested Casmir on Thursday on suspicion of laundering the sum of N1.050bn through a new generation bank for the governor of the state, Okorocha.

The statement said Casmir’s arrest followed intelligence report that the governor intended to use the money for vote-buying in favour of a particular candidate in tomorrow’s gubernatorial election.

“Intelligence further revealed that Mr Casmir withdrew the amount in three tranches between Tuesday and Thursday this week in the following order; N200m on Tuesday, N500m on Wednesday and N350m on Thursday.

“Meanwhile, the EFCC has blocked the traced accounts, while the arrested Accountant General has been providing useful information to the commission.

“Mr Casmir was before his appointment, a Director of Finance in Okorocha’s government and was in 2016 fingered in N2bn bailout fund scam, which was then given to the state by the Federal Government for the payment of salary arrears of civil servants,” the statement said.

It should be recalled that Okorocha, who is a member of the All Progressives Congress, APC, is supporting his son-in-law, Nwosu of the Action Alliance against the governorship candidate of the APC, Senator Hope Uzodinma.

- PM NEWS