Barca maintain La Liga lead but Real keep pace

FC Barcelona retained top spot in La Liga on Saturday as Luis Suarez scored twice against Espanyol to secure a 3-0 victory in their derby clash.

After Real Madrid moved three points ahead by beating Valencia earlier on Saturday, Barcelona’s title bid looked to be faltering in a nervy first half.

But Jose Manuel Jurado’s reckless 50th-minute backpass found Suarez, who fired low under keeper Diego Lopez.

Ivan Rakitic doubled the lead before Suarez capitalised on another Espanyol error to add a late third.

Barca are level on points with Real but are top because of a superior head-to-head record, and they are also ahead on goal difference.

But Real will claim the title if they win each of their remaining four league matches as they have a game in hand.

In spite of dominating possession throughout, FC Barcelona’s feted front three of Lionel Messi, Suarez and Neymar were sluggish before the break.

They were misplacing passes and failing to register a shot on target.

The visitors were gifted the lead, however, when ex-Watford midfielder Jurado tried to curve a pass back to Lopez with the outside of his foot.

But this only helped to give Suarez a free run on goal.

That mistake compounded an earlier one from Jurado, who dragged an effort well wide when through on goal as the hosts split the Barcelona defence apart on five minutes.

It proved to be their best chance of the game.

Even after Suarez’s opener, Espanyol held firm against their neighbours until Messi carved them apart with a surging run on 76 minutes, rolling the ball to Rakitic for a simple finish.

Espanyol left-back Aaron Martin then produced a horrid miskick when attempting to clear a cross, allowing Suarez to score his 26th league goal of the season.

In another La Liga fixture result, Real Madrid scored a late winner to beat Valencia 2-1 and take another step towards the La Liga title.

Cristiano Ronaldo struck early for Real — making him the all-time leading scorer in Europe’s top five leagues — but missed a second-half penalty kick.

Dani Parejo equalised on 82 minutes but Marcelo’s late curling effort secured the win.

Real stay second in the table behind FC Barcelona.

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Worker’s Day: Buhari committed to workers’ welfare, says Ngige

President Muhammadu Buhari is committed to enhancing the welfare of workers, Minister of Labour and Employment, Chris Ngige, has stated.
He saluted the resilience of workers and hope for a better future in the face of the current economic challenges.
The minister said the president was doing everything humanly possible to improve the welfare of workers with several programmes in place to actualise that.
In his 2017 May Day message, Ngige felicitated with the workers over the celebration.
In a statement by Deputy Director, Press in the Ministry, Samuel Olowookere, the Minister said: “The federal government is not unaware of the economic challenges facing Nigerian workers in the public, the private and informal sector of the economy.
“Mr. President is committed to the enhancement of workers’ welfare, through programmes like the Federal Integrated Staff Housing Scheme (FISH), creation of enabling environment to stimulate the economy with the aim of improving the social-economic wellbeing of Nigeria in all sectors of the economy.”
He solicited continued support of the workers to the change agenda, especially in the fight against corruption.

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UNIBEN student drowns in River Benue

A yet to be identified student of the University of Benin has drowned in River Benue, on the closing day of  Nigeria University Games Association (NUGA)  in Makurdi.

Dr Omeche Onoja, Chairman, NUGA games medical and sanitation subcommittee confirmed the incident.

The name of the student was not disclosed.

Onoja said the student had gone to the river to swim when the incident occurred.

She said his corpse had been deposited at Madonna Hospital in Makurdi.

” We had a distress call from some students of the situation but on reaching the river, we found the lifeless body of the student, who has been identified by his colleagues. He was said to have participated in some games.

“The whole incident could have been avoided,” she said.

The Nigeria University Games Association (NUGA) Games was hosted by the Federal University of Agriculture, Makurdi (UAM).

Fifty-seven universities participated.

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JAMB: Fresh confusion over examination centres

There is confusion over the allocation of centres to candidates of the 2017 Unified Tertiary Matriculation (UTM) examination next month by the Joint Admission Matriculation Board (JAMB) to states outside their residences.

Checks revealed that the examination body has started issuing centres and seat numbers to candidates.

The slip containing the centre and seat numbers, according to checks by our correspondent also contain the examination towns where candidates will seat for the forthcoming examination.

The exact names of the centre, according to JAMB, will be sent to the candidates’ email boxes in dues course.

However, the online publication of candidates’ examination towns by the body appeared to have been greeted with more confusion ahead of this year’s UTM examination.

Across the country, candidates and their parents are angrily protesting what they called the gross insensitivity of the management of the examination body in the choice of examination towns for many of the candidates.

The Nation gathered that a good number of the candidates have been allocated centers outside their states of residence.

The situation will see many candidates from Lagos state having to travel all the way to Ekiti, Ondo, Edo and other such states for the examination.

Candidates, who spoke with our correspondent in Lagos, lamented the financial and physical difficulties they will encounter with the development.

They added efforts to complain to the examination body and seek changes in their current examination towns are not yielding fruits.

Their claims were corroborated by some parents and guardians who also lamented the development while urging JAMB to urgently do something about the situation.

A 17- year- old candidate posted to Ondo State said she has never travelled out of Lagos alone.

“When I printed out my JAMB e-registration slip last week, I was shocked to discover that I will be writing the examination in Ondo State.

“I registered here in Lagos. I have never been to Ondo. I wonder why I have to go to Akure or Ondo town to write ordinary JAMB.

“I am confused by the whole development. I don’t know if I will still write the examination,” she said.

The mother of another aggrieved candidate ruled out the likelihood of her going to Ekiti state to write the examination.

The middle-aged woman condemned what she called the unrealistic approach of JAMB.

According to her, it is obvious that the examination body no longer understands how to go about organizing the yearly matriculation examination.

“JAMB or what is it they are called should understand how young some of these candidates are.

“My daughter is barely 18 years old and they want her to travel from Ikorodu to Ekiti just to sit for examination.

“Aside the cost implication, the danger of such trip is not worth risking by such a young child.

“They need to realize that they are scaring these children away from seeking education,” she argued on phone.

But JAMB denied sending any candidate to far flung examination towns against their wish.

Its spokesperson, Dr Fabian Benjamin, said all the candidates chose the locations they wanted to write the examination themselves.

Benjamin wondered why candidates who willingly filled the towns they are posted to while registering online will turn around to claim the body is forcing them to go to distance.

“We didn’t send candidates out of town against their wishes on our own. They chose their examination towns themselves.

“That is the truth of the matter. And to be candid, there is no fault of JAMB in any of these things you are talking about.”

Asked why new centres were not created to prevent candidates having to go far away from their bases, he said: “We didn’t do that because we didn’t want to be accused of being biased.

“We gave all the candidates the right of first refusal in choosing their examination towns. But where the centers run out quickly, we didn’t create new ones.

“In fact, I foresee a situation where somebody in Lagos will write JAMB matriculation examination in Maiduguri soon because some places will always fill up before others.

“And if we continue to make provision for more centers, somebody somewhere will say we are biased

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