Chelsea’s Tammy Abraham snubs Nigeria for England

Chelsea teen forward, Tammy Abraham has asked to be left out of the Super Eagles squad for their upcoming AFCON 2019 qualifiers against South Africa.

Tammy says he wants to focus on playing for England.

The 19-year-old is on loan to Championship side, Bristol City.

He has 22 goals this season in all competitions, a tally which could have been more if not for the injury he sustained that saw him miss some games.He went into the record books when he scored his 19th league goal of the season in the English Championship to become the first teenager ever to score 16 or more goals in a Championship season.

Nigeria football authorities are said to have approached the father of the England youth international, who incidentally is a close childhood friend of the president of the Nigeria Football Federation, NFF, Amaju Pinnick, but their request to see him switch allegiance to Nigeria immediately was turned down.

“He is keen on progressing through the ranks of the English national team set up. He has been told he is the future with age not on the side of Wayne Rooney, Jamie Vardy and Jermaine Defoe who are all ahead of him in the England pecking order,” Owngoal quoted a source as saying.“Tammy won’t be in the Nigerian team for upcoming qualifiers, maybe in the future but not so fast. He has confirmed his participation for England at the U-20 World Cup in Korea, which is around same time when Nigeria will be taking on South Africa.

Tammy becomes the second Anglo-Nigerian player who has opted to represent England instead of Nigeria within the space of one week, as Everton Ademola Lookman also did same last week.

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Thousands of Police mourn officer killed in Westminster attack

Thousands of police officers on Monday lined the streets of London to pay tribute to their colleague, Keith Palmer, killed in the Westminster terrorist attack about three weeks ago.

The 48-year-old policeman was stabbed by attacker Khalid Masood outside the parliament on March 22.

No fewer than 5,000 police officers from across Britain looked on as the hearse carrying Palmer’s coffin passed through central London to Southward cathedral.

Palmer was unarmed as he guarded the entrance to parliament when he was stabbed by 52-year-old Masood, who was then shot dead by police.

Prior to attacking Palmer, Masood deliberately drove a car into pedestrians, killing four people and injuring no fewer than 50.

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Saraki Tasks GLOBE Nigeria on Climate Change Bill

Senate President, Abubakar Bukola Saraki, Monday tasked the Global Legislators Organisation (GLOBE) Nigeria, to tackle the challenges of climate change, gas flaring and others affecting sustainable development goals in Nigeria.

The Global Legislators Organization (GLOBE) is an international organization comprising national parliamentarians from over 80 countries committed to developing and overseeing the implementation of laws in pursuit of sustainable development.

According to a statement by the Special Assistant to the Senate President on Print Media, Chuks Okocha, Saraki urged the members of the organisation not to relent in their effort to address the challenges posed by climate change, gas flaring and sustainable development in Nigeria through the provisions of purposeful legislations.

Saraki urged the group to fashion out legislations that would address issues of climate change as is the situation all over the world.

He said: “A lot of pronouncements have been made by the government, and by the last National Assembly without legislative backing and we will just continue to see this as mere pronouncements. Am aware that as legislators that meet and discuss issues on Climate, we are the first country in West Africa and am happy with the kind of report the network is receiving.

“We want Nigeria to become the major hub of Globe Worldwide, to provide leadership in Africa.  Some of the things we see here, even in the sub-Sahara Africa, countries have gone so far in some of these legislations on the Climate  Change and sustainable developments.

“Am very happy of what I heard today on the close work between the Senate and the House of Representatives to see that Climate Change is addressed through  legislative processes.

“In Nigeria, we need to know that we have lots of work to do and I think that it can only be done with an organisation like this which is non-political or seeking the interest of one party, so that we can do what is best for our country”, Saraki said.

President of the Globe Nigeria, Senator Bukar Abba Ibrahim, appealed to the Senate President  to support the Climate Change Bill which will be introduced concurrently soon at both chambers of the National Assembly.

Ibrahim said:  “You may recall our unique and desperate situation regarding the effect of Climate Change on our people. Very recently, Nigeria recorded more than 300 deaths as a result of meningitis outbreak; this epidemic cannot be unconnected to our worsening climate and heat waves.

“As a purpose-driven caucus of the Nigerian parliament, we have a responsibility to protect our people through effective legislation and oversight on climate-induced diseases, migration, conflicts and food insecurity.

“Climate Change is one of the flagship issues the GLOBE Organization has been advocating support for since its establishment and we will be happy to pull some political support from you for the upcoming Climate Change Bill”, he stated.

Other bills lined up for the Senate President’s support, he said,  includes the Gas Flaring Prohibition Bill, Access to Clean Energy Services and Technology Bill as well as an intervention on natural capital and sustainable development.

Senator Ibrahim assured the Senate President that the vision with which he established GLOBE Nigeria would be pursued with utmost dedication and commitment.

He said that the GLOBE Nigeria would  ensure that funds approved and released to the group  is judiciously used and in the spirit of engaging with only the things that will uphold the Nigerian legislature and associated social impact on the lives of the people

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Nigeria refining capacity increases by 29 per cent

…NNPC cuts losses by 16.19 per cent

The combined installed capacity utilization of the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation’s (NNPC) refineries located in Port Harcourt, Warri and Kaduna increased by about 29 percentage points in January 2017 compared with their performance in December 2016.

In the latest of the Corporation’s Monthly Financial and Operations Report for January released in Abuja Monday, NNPC said the capacity utilization of the refineries rose to 36.73 per cent in January, 2017, as against 7.55 percent in the previous month of December, 2016.

The report attributed the improvement to the implementation of the 12 Business Focus Areas (BUFAS) strategy introduced by the Group Managing Director, Dr. Maikanti Baru.

The corporation’s Group General Manager, Group Public Affairs Division, Mr. Ndu Ughamadu made this disclosure in a statement Monday.

According to the report, the refineries benefitted from the introduction of a new Refineries Business Model under the 12 BUFAS strategy which has transformed them from “tolling plants to merchant plants” thereby placing them on the path of profitability.

The Port Harcourt Refining Company (PHRC ) and Warri Refining and Petrochemical Company (WRPC) also posted surpluses of Five Billion, One Hundred and Fifteen Million Naira (N5,115,000,000) and Four Hundred and Four Hundred and Four Million Naira (N404,000,000) respectively.

Under the new refinery model, each refinery purchases crude oil at export parity price, processes and sells the corresponding products on its own account.

“This is different from the previous Tolling Plant model where the refinery does not take title to the crude, but rather charges a tolling/processing fee to the owner of the crude which was PPMC on behalf of the Corporation”, the report stated.

Apart from PHRC and WRPC, five other subsidiaries of the Corporation also posted surpluses. These include the Nigerian Petroleum Development Company (NPDC), the Nigerian Gas Pipelines and Transport Company (NGPTC), NNPC Retail, the National Engineering and Technical Company (NETCO), and the Integrated Data Services Ltd (IDSL).

According to the document which is the 18^th in the series of Monthly Financial and Operations Reports since the NNPC began publishing its business transactions, the Corporation recorded a Two Billion, Seven Hundred and Fifty Million Naira (N2.75billion) reduction in its trading deficit in the period under review putting the total trading deficit atN14.26billion.

“This represents about 16.19 per cent improvement compared toN17.01billion recorded in December, 2016, in spite of the Corporation’s challenging situations which limit its aspiration to profitability”, the report stated.

It listed some of the factors that impeded the Corporation’s performance to include the production shutdown of the Trans Niger Pipeline and Nembe Creek Trunkline due to leakages; the shutdown of Agbami Terminal for a mini Turn-around-Maitenance; and the subsisting Force Majeure declared by SPDC as a result of the vandalized 48-inch Forcados export line after its restoration in October 17, 2016.

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