PDP denies of manipulating document from Cambridge University concerning Buhari`s certificate

The PDP Presidential Campaign
Organisation has denied
manipulating a document from
Cambridge University to justify
claims that Gen. Muhammadu
Buhari’s West African School
Certificate statement of result was
forged.
Chief Femi Fani-Kayode, Director
of Media and Publicity of the
organisation made the denial in a
statement signed by his Special
Assistant, Mr Sufuyan Ojeifo, in
Abuja on Tuesday.
The statement said the allegation
by the All Progressives Congress
(APC) was indicative of its
desperation for power.
The APC had alleged that Fani-
Kayode manipulated the alleged
certificate of Gen. Mohammad
Buhari, its presidential candidate.
The certificate emerged in the
media following series of
controversies surrounding it and
Buhari`s eligibility to contest the
presidential election on Feb. 14.
“Fani-Kayode never issued a
statement in his capacity as
spokesperson for the PDP
Presidential Campaign.
“Neither did he address a press
conference nor briefing where he
referred to the Cambridge
document in question.
“He also did not validate the
content of the said document on
any occasion’’, the statement said.
It added that as far as Fani-
Kayode was concerned, he did not
know of the existence of the said
Cambridge e-mail document and
what the content was all about.
It maintained that the director of
media and publicity never
commented on the content of the
document.
According to the statement, Fani-
Kayode has not been in touch with
Cambridge to request for any
information in respect of the issue
in question.
“What he has done, especially
during his last press conference on
Gen. Buhari’s published statement
of result, was to make assertions
to the effect that the statement of
result was forged.
“He added that the result was
illegally procured’’, the statement
said.
It added that Fani-Kayode had
also called on the police to track
down the masterminds of the
forgery at the press briefing.
“The allegation of manipulation
against Chief Fani-Kayode is,
therefore, indicative of desperation
by the opposition who should have
spoken on the issue of whether or
not Buhari has a certificate or
not.’’

King Olamide Chilling Out With Obafemi Martins.

The king of the west, Olamide spent some of his time yesterday with the super eagles star, Obafemi Martins…The two look cute together.

God has told me who will win 2015 naija election.

Matthew Ashimolowo is the Senior
Pastor of Kingsway
International Christian Centre
(KICC) in London. He
talked to Sunday Sun about the
state of the nation, his life
as regards touching the lives of
the less privileged, his
vision for widows and lots more.
We are in the New Year. Nigerians
would like to know
what God is saying to us as a
country. Do you have a mes­
sage for Nigerians?
Very interesting. I believe that
globally, there is going to
be a shaking of the world. There
will be earthquakes in
some places. There might be
famine in places they never
knew famine, and flooding in
places they didn’t expect.
For Nigeria, the Lord showed me,
who will win the
election. I will not mention his
name, because I have to
be politically neutral. But when the
president’s name is
announced, 20 percent of a certain
part of the nation will
not agree. Eventually, after
negotiation they will. We will
agree that we’re one. Wales is only
400,000 people or
about a million people. They call
them a nation, and they
call Yorubas who are 27 million a
tribe, the Igbo who are
18 million you call them a tribe.
For us to have many
nations that make up Nigeria, it
was God that made it
happen. And that prophetic
mandate still remains on
Nigeria. Anyone who incites people
to divide this nation
will lose his chance. Nigeria will
remain one. After all the
noise, you will be amazed that also
some politicians will
be shocked, nobody will be ready
to die for them. There
will be peace in Nigeria after the
election. I see a man
who will one day rise, but I don’t
know when, I don’t
think it’s up to 10 years though .
He will turn the
fortunes of Nigeria round. Nigeria
will look like one of
these advancing nations like
United Arab Emirates ,
India, and China. That is how
Nigeria will be.
You said there will be peace, what
about Boko Haram
insurgency?
Boko Haram is a snake with many
heads. We are cutting
one head, which is why the other
head shows up. If you
know the hydras in the story of
Hercules, every time the
head of that snake was cut, two
heads grew there. We
need a robust approach. Boko
Haram will still be around
but we need a robust approach.
We need to deal with
fifth columnists in the system who
are empowering them.
I am 62 years old. I was born in
the barracks and I know
when Nigeria fought the civil war.
My father fought the
war too. In fact, he died in Biafra.
He died by the Asaba
bridge. But I can tell you, in
Nigeria, there were only five
battalions when Nigeria fought the
three-year civil war
and yet the war came to an end. It
was massive. How
can you fight a bunch of riff-raffs
with the army and
they hold you to ransom? Fifth
columnists are selling
Nigeria to them, giving them
petrol, money and
ammunition. As my mother used to
say, when a child
keeps throwing stones and he’s
not exhausted, there is a
supplier in the corner. But our
prayer should be that our
government will be bold enough to
indict the fifth
columnists, either inside the
system or outside the system
and the process they are funding
the wrong people.

Man Utd sign Valdes as No 2 goalkeeper.

^{Former Barcelona goalkeeper joins
on free transfer with 18-month
deal to back up De Gea
Manchester United have announced
the signing of goalkeeper Victor
Valdes on a free transfer.}
The former Barcelona player, who
was a free agent, has signed an
18-month contract with the option
to extend for a further year. The
32-year-old came through the
ranks of the Barcelona youth
system, making his senior debut in
2002 and went on to win 21 major
trophies with the side.
"From my short time here I
can already see this is a very
special club"
Victor Valdes
Valdes has 20 caps with Spain and
was part of the squad who won the
2010 FIFA World Cup and Euro
2012. Valdes suffered a knee injury
suffered last season with
Barcelona but proved his fitness
training with United to become the
No.2 goalkeeper behind his
compatriot, David De Gea, at Old
Trafford.
"It is a real honour to sign for
Manchester United," Valdes told
manutd.com . "I would like to thank
Louis van Gaal and the club for
allowing me to do my
rehabilitation and to train with the
team at the Aon Training Complex.
"From my short time here I can
already see this is a very special
club. I worked with Louis van Gaal
during my time at FC Barcelona
and to have the opportunity to
work with him here at Manchester
United is a dream come true."
Van Gaal expressed his delight at
the capture of the goalkeeper.
"Victor is a very experienced
goalkeeper and his record speaks
for itself," the manager said. "I
have said on many occasions that
Manchester United will always be
interested in the best players.
"Victor has remained very
professional throughout his
rehabilitation from injury and has
been very impressive during his
training sessions with the first
team over the past weeks. He joins
the club as the No 2 goalkeeper
and is a great addition to the first
team."

I will take up more challenges in 2015, Mercy Johnson tells fans.

^{JUST as every country is expected
to read their budgets at the
beginning of the year,
entertainment stars too are
expected by their fans to say what
they have to offer in a new year.
For Nollywood super star and
mother of two, Mercy Johnson, she
began her New Year with a
message to her teeming fans and
told them she would be taking up
more challenging roles.
“One of the best feelings one can
have is the feeling that some
people who have never met you in
person have your back. I have
experienced love from
unimaginable people; Ghana,
Liberia, Paris, UK, USA, Seychelles
and all over the world” she began,
in her New Year message to her
fans.}

Continuing in the same vein, she
thanked her fans for being there
for her and husband, who,
according to her, was very
supportive of her career
“I want to also say a very big
thank you to my husband for
giving me room to fly. Some men
out there would probably have
clipped my wings but Odi is not
some kind of man. I want to say
thank you for being so supportive
and understanding” she said.
“I plan and hope that 2015 will be
different from previous years. The
jobs I will do will be slightly
different from that of the past. I
will take up more challenges. I will
also have to balance things out
because I still have to play the role
of a wife and mother, but all in all,
there should be a new Mercy
Johnson of sort” she added.

Gen. Buhari takes campaign to Jonathan’s home base.

All
Progressives Congress, APC,
Presidential candidate, General
Muhammadu Buhari (retd),
yesterday, took his campaign to
the home base of President
Goodluck Jonathan in Bayelsa and
Rivers States with a promise to
frontally address environmental
concerns and degraded
infrastructure, if elected.
Buhari’s promise to implement the
United Nations Environmental
Programme, UNEP, report on
Ogoniland was elatedly received by
Ogoni traditional rulers who
through the president, Supreme
Council of Ogoni Traditional
Rulers, King Godwin Biniwa,
handed him a sword to wipe out
their tears when he emerges
president.
General Buhari and his entourage,
following the stop at Ogoniland,
followed up with campaigns in
Yenogoa, Bayelsa State the home
base of the president and his main
rival for the presidency.
Meanwhile, his running mate, Prof.
Yemi Osinbajo, in Benin City, Edo
State, said the country would be
unrecognisable in one year of an
APC government.
His position came as Governor
Babatunde Fashola of Lagos State
regretted that President Goodluck
Jonathan was blaming his
predecessors in office when his six
years in office has only brought
agony and poverty to Nigerians.
At an interactive session with
students, traditional rulers, market
women and professionals in Benin
City, yesterday, Osinbajo said an
APC government would within one
year solve the power problem, free
health care and free food for
school children.
He added that though the nation
was rich, “we lack the leadership
to harness our resources,” just as
he noted that insurgency and
corruption had thrived because
President Jonathan lacks the
political will to fight them.
Buhari urges Ogonis to vote APC
Speaking in Saakpenwa,
headquarters of Tai Local
Government Area during a meeting
with Ogoni people, Buhari
appealed to the people to vote for
the APC and urged them to get
their Permanent Voters Cards,
PVCs.
Flaying the neglect of the region,
Buhari put the blame squarely on
President Jonathan saying: “The
decision of the Federal Government
to abandon the Bodo-Bonny road
project is a clear case of
incompetence and social injustice.
It amounts to neglect at the
highest level.
A lot is taken from Ogoniland and
relatively little is brought back in
return. I assure you that an APC-
led Federal Government will fulfil
all its promises in Ogoniland.”
Senator Magnus Abe, who hails
from the area, was absent during
the visit. In a statement read on
his behalf, he lamented the pains
the Ogoni had suffered in the
nation.
Magnus, who represents the Rivers
South-East senatorial district in
the National Assembly, further
appealed to the people to vote the
APC.
He said: “Our position as a people
concerning resumption of oil
exploration in Ogoni is that, there
should be adequate consultation
with and participation of the
Ogonis in the process leading to
their eventual operation.
“As a deprived people, we have
consistently placed in the domains
of all governments, the Ogoni Bill
of Rights (OBR) that seeks for
equal representation of Ogonis in
the affairs of the nation. These
demands include appointment of
Ogoni sons and daughters in
government, provision of live
sustainable infrastructures, such
as good roads, water and
development institutions.”
On his part, Director General,
Buhari Presidential Campaign
Organisation, Governor Chibuike
Amaechi of Rivers State, urged the
people to vote for the APC, saying
the Ogoni had suffered neglect in
the country.
President, Supreme Council of
Ogoni Traditional Rulers, King
Godwin Biniwa, later handed a
copy of the UNEP report and a
sword to Buhari, urging him to
wipe out their tears when he
emerges president.
Buhari identifies bane of nation’s
march to greatness
Buhari repeated the same vow of
dealing with environmental
problems in Bayelsa where he was
received by thousands of
supporters who had defied the
scorching sun and long delay to
receive him at the Samson Siasia
Stadium.
The stadium was filled to capacity
as at 3 p.m. five hours after his
scheduled arrival as party
supporters busied themselves with
entertainments provided by dance
troupes and other entertainers.
Speaking at the event, Buhari
identified corruption, insecurity and
incompetent leadership as bane of
the nation’s march to greatness
even as he promised to tackle
environmental pollution ravaging
the Niger Delta region.
He also promised to revive
agriculture and fishing in the
region to boost food production
and reduce the rate of
unemployment in the country.
He lamented that the PDP
neglected agriculture with the
result that the nation is dependent
on imports to feed her population.
He also noted with sadness that
the people of the Niger Delta can
no longer fish in their troubled
water due to pollution and
promised to work with the United
Nations to remediate the
environment if voted into office.
Also speaking, Governor Amaechi
in his speech at the occasion
assured that the party would
create jobs, tackle poverty,
unemployment and insecurity in
the country of voted into power.
A bad brother is not as good as a
good friend— Sylva
Earlier, the immediate past
governor of the state, Chief Timipre
Sylva, urged Bayelsans to vote out
Jonathan, saying: “A bad brother
is not as good as a good friend.”
He said: “Vote APC and welcome
prosperity, good governance into
your homes. I have gone to the
West, East, North and South, I
have one assurance that Buhari
has won the 2015 poll.”
Highlight of the occasion was the
presentation of flags to the party
senatorial candidates in the
forthcoming National Assembly
polls. They include, Chief Timipre
Sylva for Bayelsa East, Eddie
Julius, Bayelsa West and Preye
Aganaba, Bayelsa Central.

Alexis Sanchez and Costa clinch EA SPORTS FPL Half-time Awards.

Arsenal midfielder Alexis Sanchez
and Chelsea forward Diego Costa
are among five winners to have
been honoured for their
exceptional Fantasy Premier
League performances during the
first half of the Barclays Premier
League campaign in the 2014/15
EA SPORTS FPL Half-time Awards.

Highest Points Scorer – Alexis
Sanchez (ARS)

Alexis Sanchez has claimed the
award for being Highest Points
Scorer after hitting the ground
running in his first season in the
English top flight with an
impressive 120 points from 19 BPL
appearances. The Chile
international, who was signed from
Barcelona in the summer, has
represented Arsenal's, and many
FPL managers', main attacking
threat this season, scoring 10
goals, providing six assists and
amassing 19 Bonus Points (BP)
through his tireless work-rate and
productivity. The 26-year-old's
displays have lifted his value by
£0.9 million to £11.4m over the
course of the first half of the
season, persuading 41% of FPL
managers to take advantage of his
status as a midfielder by procuring
his services.

January wildcard
Available after GW20
Closes end of GW23 (7 Feb,
11:30am)

Fans' favourite – Diego Costa
(CHE)

Sanchez's free-scoring ways have
not made him the most popular
player in FPL, however. That
honour belongs to Diego Costa,
who, like Sanchez, has also made
light of his first season in the
Barclays Premier League, by
racking up 13 BPL goals at the
midway stage of the season. The
Chelsea No 9's eye for goal has
made him the player to have been
bought by the most FPL managers,
with 59.4% boasting the Spain
forward in their squads, despite his
value increasing from £10.5m to
£11.2m over the first 19
Gameweeks.

Most saves by a goalkeeper –
Robert Green (QPR)

Queens Park Rangers may be
battling the threat of relegation
but were it not for their goalkeeper
they might well have found
themselves further embroiled at
the foot of the BPL table. As it is,
though, Robert Green has helped
his side steer clear of the bottom
three with a glut of saves. The 34-
year-old, whose value remains the
£4.5 million it was at the start of
the season, leads the way after 19
Gameweeks with 67 saves, earning
him 63 FPL points at the halfway
point in the campaign.
Stats for the EA SPORTS FPL Half-
time Award Winners
Player
Team
Pts
Goals
Assists
Clean sheets
Bonus pts
Value
Sanchez
ARS
120
10
6
4
19
+0.9m
Costa
CHE
91
13
1
8
11
+0.7m
Sterling
LIV
86
4
5
5
12
-0.2m
Clyne
SOU
86
2
1
8
9
+0.9m
Player
Team
Pts
Saves
Assists
Clean sheets
Bonus pts
Value
Green
QPR
63
67
0
4
5
+0.0m

Best Under-21 player – Raheem
Sterling (LIV)

The 2014/15 edition has had a
number of rising stars emerge,
including Saido Berahino, James
Ward-Prowse and, most recently,
Harry Kane, but the winner of the
EA SPORTS FPL Half-time Award
for Best Under-21 player is
Liverpool's Raheem Sterling, who
accumulated 86 points after 19
Gameweeks. The 32.2% of FPL
managers who own the England
international have benefited from
the deployment of the attacking
midfielder in a more advanced
striking position as Liverpool
manager Brendan Rodgers sought
to address the Reds' injury
problems. Curiously, however,
Sterling's value has decreased by
£0.2m since the start of the
season, perhaps as a consequence
of Liverpool's diminished
goalscoring returns compared with
last.

Biggest price increase – Nathaniel
Clyne (SOU)

One player whose stock has not
lessened since the start of the
season is Nathaniel Clyne, who
wins the award for the Biggest
Price Increase over the first 19
Gameweeks. The right-back's
displays for a Southampton side
sitting in fourth place in the
Barclays Premier League and
boasting the best defensive record
in the top flight, have been
reflected in his value rocketing
from £5 million to £5.9 million by
the halfway point. Clyne, who has
also broken into the England first
team over recent months, was not
the only player to boast a £0.9
million price increase. Sanchez
and Stewart Downing, the West
Ham United midfielder (£5.5m-
£6.4m), also did so but the Saints
full-back shaded the award on the
tie-breaker criterion of having
managed the highest percentage
increase based on his original
price.

Yaya Toure won 2014 Glo-CAF African Footballer of the Year.

Ivory Coast and Manchester City of
England play maker, Yaya Toure
has claimed the 2014 Glo-CAF
African Footballer of the Year
award, thus winning it for the
fourth straight time, since 2011.
The Ivorian midfielder who is 1.88
meters tall was born in Bouake in
May, 1983.
He has over 85 caps for Ivory
Coast with 16 goals while his
appearance for Manchester City is
above
140 with over 39 goals.
The Ivorian captain defeated his
nearest rival, Nigeria captain and
first choice goalkeeper, Vincent
Enyeama and Gabon international,
Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang.
Toure was voted African Footballer
of The Year for 2011, 2012 and
2013 respectively.
While in Bacelona, his club side
won six trophies in 2009 alone. He
was nominated for The Personality
of The Year Award at the MTV
Africa Music Awards in July 2014.
He was also nominated for the
Prize in Entertainment category at
the 2014 edition of The Future
Africa Awards.
With this towering profile, the
Ivorian captain was clearly, the
pundits’ favourite to cart home the
prestigious award.
OTHER WINNERS
•National Team of the Year –
Algeria
Women National Team of the Year
– Nigeria
Club of the Year – ES Setif
(Algeria)
Most Promising Talent – Yacine
Braimih – Algeria
Best Youth Player of the Year –
Asisat Oshoala – Nigeria
Woman Footballer of the Year –
Asisat Oshoala
Coach of the Year – Kheeireddine
Madoui (ES Setif) of Algeria.

Boko Haram abducts 40 boys, men in Borno village

Suspected Boko Haram gunmen
have kidnapped 40 boys and
young men in a remote village in
Borno state on New Year’s Eve,
residents who fled the isolated
settlement said on Saturday.
Scores of Boko Haram militants
stormed the Malari village and
whisked away the males, aged
between 10 and 23, into the
nearby Sambisa forest, believed to
be one of the Islamists’ major
bases.
The news of the abductions came
out only days later, when residents
who fled the village arrived in the
state capital Maiduguri late on
Friday.
“They came in pick-up trucks
armed with guns and gathered all
the men in the village outside the
home of the village chief where
they preached to us before singling
out 40 of our boys and taking
them away,” Bulama Muhammad
told AFP
Malari village lies 20 kilometres
(12.5 miles) from the Sambisa
forest and close to the town of
Gwoza, which the militants
captured last June declaring it
part of their caliphate.
“My two sons and three nephews
were among those taken away by
the Boko Haram gunmen and we
believe they are going to use them
as conscripts,” Muhammad said.
“When we heard of the kidnap of
40 boys in Malari by Boko Haram
we decided to leave because we
could be the next target,” said
Alaramma Babagoni, who fled from
the nearby village of Mulgwi.
There was no immediate comment
on the incident from the military in
Maiduguri.
Boko Haram is still holding in
captivity more than 200
schoolgirls it abducted from their
school in Chibok in Borno state
last April.
The Islamists are believed to
control large swathes of territory in
Borno as well as several towns and
villages in two other northeastern
states, Adamawa and Yobe.
Boko Haram’s five-year uprising in
Nigeria has claimed more than
13,000 lives and has seen dozens
of people, including women and
children, kidnapped by the
Islamists.

Woman making Prince Andrew sex claims vows not to be silenced

The woman who named Britain’s
Prince Andrew in a US court filing
claiming that she was kept as an
underage “sex slave” by a Wall
Street financier said Saturday she
would not be silenced.
The plaintiff, identified only as
“Jane Doe #3″ in court papers,
told the Guardian newspaper that
she refuses to be “unjustly
victimised again” after robust
denials from Buckingham Palace
and another man named in the
suit.
The story made headline news in
Britain’s newspapers on Saturday.
According to the motion filed in a
Florida court on Monday, the
woman alleges she was “forced to
have sexual relations” with
Andrew, the Duke of York, in
London, New York and the
Caribbean at the behest of Jeffrey
Epstein.
Epstein, a known friend of the 54-
year-old prince, was convicted in
2008 of soliciting an underage girl
for prostitution and served a
prison term.
No dates for the purported sexual
encounters were given, but the
woman claimed she was Epstein’s
sex slave from 1999 through 2002.
In a strongly worded response on
Friday, Buckingham Palace said
that “any suggestion of
impropriety with underage minors
is categorically untrue”.
Another man named in the court
papers also robustly protested his
innocence.
Alan Dershowitz, one of Epstein’s
defence lawyers with whom “Jane
Doe #3″ was allegedly forced to
have sex with on several
occasions, told AFP the story was
“made up”.
He accused “Jane Doe #3″ of
“filing a false and malicious legal
proceeding” in an attempt to extort
money from his former client.
In a statement issued to the
Guardian through her lawyers, the
woman said: “These types of
aggressive attacks on me are
exactly the reason why sexual
abuse victims typically remain
silent and the reason why I did for
a long time.
“That trend should change. I’m not
going to be bullied back into
silence.”
Andrew is the second son of Queen
Elizabeth II and fifth in line to the
British throne.
He was Britain’s Special
Representative for International
Trade and Investment for 10 years
until 2011.
The motion in which he is named
is to be included in an ongoing
civil case that accuses federal
prosecutors of cutting a plea-
bargain deal with Epstein without
consulting his victims, in violation
of the US Crime Victims Rights’
Act.
In 2008, Epstein was sentenced to
18 months in prison after pleading
guilty to a single Florida state
charge of soliciting prostitution.
He remains a registered sex
offender.