My exit was to make Barcelona better, stronger – Messi

 

Barcelona forward, Lionel Messi has said that his decision to exit Barcelona during the summer was to make the club stronger and better.

He said that he had Barcelona’s best interest at heart when he announced that he wanted to leave the club.

The 33-year-old admitted he had wanted to leave “all year” and claimed a clause in his contract meant he could do so for free, but in the end, the Argentine was forced to stay as Barcelona disagreed and wasn’t willing to reduce its €700 million ($897 million) release clause.

He also said that his decision to remain at Barcelona after all the struggle to leave was out of his love for Barcelona. Messi said he had no intention of disputing the club’s decision in court and dragging out a legal dispute

- PM NEWS

‘Protest remains our only tool’ — CORE activists vow to hit the streets

 

The Coalition for Revolution (CORE) has vowed not to get tired of protesting against injustice.

Speaking during a press conference on Wednesday, Gbenga Komolafe, co-convener of the group, said protest remains its main tool for rallying the masses who are the “most hit of bad governance”.

Komolafe said CORE intends to organise a protest on October 1, 2020, to drive home its demands for a better society.

He said the group is against the poor treatment meted out to the masses through “misguided policies, misrule and continuous mismanagement of resources”.

“The revolution in Nigeria is part and parcel of the struggle of masses and youths across the world against the one per cent of super-rich and will triumph as part of the waves of the working masses marching from resistance to global revolution,” he said.

“Whereas Nigeria is a rich country, we the masses are poor. Living standards have become progressively worse over the last four decades due to anti-poor policies of the elite which have led to increasing poverty for workers in the formal and informal economy as well as poor farmers in the rural areas, with Nigeria becoming the country with the largest number of poor people in the world.

“Physical infrastructures such as roads, rail and air travel infrastructures and public utilities such as electricity, potable water, basic sanitation infrastructures have all been mismanaged and rendered largely useless and unfit for use by most Nigerians.

“The coronavirus pandemic has further revealed social and economic inequalities in the country with a large number of deaths resulting from the terrible healthcare system, appalling housing and sanitation conditions as well the draconian actions taken by the Nigerian state in the name of containing the pandemic.

“What is there to celebrate when public office holders award themselves the highest levels of salaries and allowances in the world, oversized retirement packages and an excessive support staff for politicians while the new minimum wage, whose buying power has been reduced with increase in commodities is not constantly paid or not paid at all.

“We shall thus stand by all working-class people and youth anywhere and everywhere in the world against evil exploitative system.”

Komolafe said security agencies cannot stop them from fighting for their right.

- THECABLE

Koeman speaks on Dembele leaving Barcelona for Man Utd

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 Barcelona head coach, Ronald Koeman, has ruled out any possibility of Winger, Ousmane Dembele leaving the club for Manchester United before the transfer window closes on October 5.

Reports had emerged in Spain on Tuesday, claiming Man United have been working on a deal to bring Dembele to England, either on loan or in a permanent deal worth £50m.

However, Koeman has now insisted that he is counting on the World Cup winner to remain at Barcelona, though he did admit that any decision over a transfer would be up to Dembele and the Catalan club.

Asked about the rumours surrounding Dembele’s future, Koeman told reporters at his pre-match press conference on Wednesday ahead of Barcelona’s La Liga clash with Celta Vigo on Thursday: “Dembele’s situation? I’m counting on him.

“He was very good in the first weeks [of pre-season], but he had a downturn last week.

“He trained well today, and I am counting on him. But these are decisions for the club and the player.”

- DAILY POST

Neymar biggest tax debtor in Spain

 

Paris Saint-Germain forward Neymar is the biggest tax debtor in Spain, amassing 34.6 million euros or $40.5 million in unpaid taxes.

According to an official document published Wednesday, by the Spanish tax authorities, the Brazilian, tops the list of thousands of names published on the website of the Spanish tax office.

Neymar played for Barcelona from 2013 to 2017 before moving to the French club for 222 million euros in the most expensive transfer in history.

The Spanish press reported last year the country’s tax authorities were pursuing Neymar for fiscal fraud dating back to his time at Barca, but it is the first time the information has been officially confirmed.

The Spanish tax office did not say whether Neymar’s presence on the list was linked to his 2013 transfer to Barcelona from Brazilian club Santos, the AFP reported.

According to media reports Spain’s fiscal authorities are investigating two of Neymar’s transfers, his arrival at the Camp Nou from Santos in 2013 and his switch to the French capital four years later.

Barca said the deal cost 57.1 million euros but according to Spanish authorities the club paid 83.3 millions euros for the attacker.

In 2016, he signed a new contract with the Catalans which included a progressive payment of bonuses but they refused to pay him the remaining 26 million euros in add-ons after he left for the Parc des Princes.

In June, a Spanish court dismissed the forward’s case against the club and told him to pay 6.79 million euros to the outfit, who claimed he had violated his deal.

Other footballers such as former Real Madrid attacker Cristiano Ronaldo and Neymar’s former Barca team-mate Lionel Messi have also had issued with Spanish tax officials.

In January 2019, Ronaldo, now at Italian side Juventus, was handed a suspended two-year prison sentence for committing tax fraud while he was in Madrid.

The Portugal forward also agreed to pay 18.8 million euros in fines and back taxes to settle the case, according to legal sources.

Messi paid a two-million-euro fine in 2016 in his own tax wrangle and received a 21-month suspended jail term.

*Reported by AFP

Appeal court nullifies recruitment of 10,000 constables by IGP

 

The court of appeal in Abuja has nullified the recruitment of 10,000 constables carried out by Mohammed Adamu, the inspector-general of police, in 2019.

In a unanimous judgement on Wednesday, a three-man panel of the appellate court led by Olabisi Ige, held that the IGP lacked the power to make the recruitment for the police force.

The court held that the power to carry out the recruitment was exclusively that of the Police Service Commission (PSC).

The judgment upturned the December 2, 2019 verdict of a federal high court in Abuja which upheld the powers of the IGP to carry out the said recruitment.

In a suit marked FHC/ABJ/CS/1124/2019, filed before the high court in September 2019, PSC had argued that the IGP by law has no role to play “in the appointment, promotion, dismissal or exercise of disciplinary measures over persons holding or aspiring to hold offices in the Nigeria Police Force”.

They prayed the court to nullify the recruitment process already commenced by the NPF and the IGP.

But Inyang Ekwo, judge of the federal high court, dismissed PSC’s case for lacking merit.

Ekwo noted that Section 71 of the said Nigeria Police Service Regulations, 1968,  gave the power to enlist constables to the police council and the NPF under the control of the IGP, and not the PSC.

However, setting aside the judgment of the lower court, the court of appeal upheld the PSC’s case, resolving all the issues raised in its favour.

Ige, who read the judgment, held that the police regulation which purportedly conferred power on the IGP to recruit constables “is null and void being in conflict with the Constitutional powers vested in the Police Service Commission”.

Consequently, the court declared the recruitment carried out by the IGP “null and void”.

- THECABLE

Nigeria will move forward if constitution is reviewed – Afenifere

 

The pan-Yoruba socio-political organisation, Afenifere on Wednesday, said there is still hope for Nigeria as it attains 60 years of Independence.

The National Publicity Secretary of Afenifere, Mr Yinka Odumakin, said this during an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) on Wednesday in Lagos.

Odumakin said that Nigeria would move forward to fulfill the dreams of its founding fathers if the constitution is reviewed to reflect the will and wishes of the federating units.

He said that there was the need to separate good governance from politics.

“We need a constitution that can put us together well, take us to the land of opportunities and ensure equality, fairness and justice for every section.

“We need a constitution that can make all federating units proud of the nation. We must go back to true federalism.

“We must ensure that we separate politics from governance,” Odumakin said.

The Afenifere spokesman added that the country will also move forward if the citizens would do the right things.

- DAILY POST

Residents decry killing of Malaysian returnee in Aba

 

Aba residents have decried the killing of Mr Samuel Kalu, (aka aki ilu- bitter kola), a Nigerian resident in Malaysia who was shot dead on Sunday evening by gunmen in Umuibe Street, Aba.

Mr Okere Ogbonna, a resident of the area who spoke to the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN), said Kalu was shot at a barbing saloon at Umuibe Street, off Item Road, Ndiegoro Aba.

Okere said the incident took place on Sunday, stressing that the residents of the area were thrown into panic.

He said that Kalu, who hailed from Ibinaukwu Igbere, in Bende Local Government Area of Abia was “born and bred’’ at the Ndiegoro area of Aba where he was brutally killed.

According to him, Kalu has a wife and a daughter, aged parents, he stayed with when he recently returned from his base in Malaysia before coronavirus outbreak.

Another Umuibe street source that did not was his name printed said Kalu returned from his Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia base before COVID-19 lockdown and had planned his return to Malaysia before his murder.

The source pleaded with Gov. Okezie Ikpeazu to do something about the security situation of the entire Ndiegoro area of Aba, including Ngwa Road and Ohanku Road areas.

He said that some persons had been killed in the area recently on Agu Road off Ohanku Road in this same Ndiegoro area.

When contacted, the Abia Police Command Public Relation Officer, SP Geoffrey Ogbonna, confirmed that the incident really happened.

“We learnt that the young man was shot in a barbing salon.

“He got a call and either he directed them to where he went or the people went in there and shot him.

“The case is under investigation. We are doing our best to track the hoodlums,” he said.

Ogbonna said that the reported recurrence of killings in the area is the reason residents should volunteer information to the police.(NAN)8

- PM NEWS