The Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board (JAMB) has again announced the withdrawal of results of additional 13 candidates who were alleged to have been involved in examination malpractices during this year’s yet-to-be-concluded Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination (UTME).
The examination body, which had earlier on Tuesday, announced the withdrawal of a candidate’s result over allegation of impersonation, also announced that 93 candidates’ results have been withheld pending the conclusion of an ongoing probe.
In its second statement on the matter on Tuesday, JAMB said the decision followed the consideration and further approval of the recommendations of the investigators by the board’s management at a management meeting held on Tuesday, 27th July 2021.
The statement, which was signed by the head of public affairs and protocol, Fabian Benjamin, however, noted that the results of 14,620 other candidates who were hitherto under investigation have been cleared and released.
The examination body listed the additional 13 candidates whose results were withdrawn to include; Gabriel Micheal, Lawson Ruth Joy, Sadiq Mahbub Auwal, Tambaya Yahaya, Anowa Anointing, Ogbonna Joseph Dibia, and Ani Maryrose AdaLoki (Loik Ayomiposi Precious).
Others according to the statement are Ekeocha Chinecherem Michael, Oluwarotimi Toluwanimi Ayanfeoluwa, Edu Teslim Abiola, Simon Friday Promise and Onyeama Odi.
However, unlike its earlier announcement which contained details of the alleged candidate- Attama Lawrence Ikedichukwu, the latest announcement gave no insight into the specifics of the alleged infringements committed by the accused and where they sat the examinations.
The examination body, in its statement, also said the results of the blind candidates who sat its examination between June 30 and Jul 1, 2021, have been released.
Manchester United have confirmed they have reached an agreement with Real Madrid to sign defender Raphael Varane.
It is understood the clubs have agreed an initial fee of £34m, which could rise to £42m, and that Varane, 28, has agreed terms on a four-year contract with the option for another 12 months.
United said the transfer would be completed “subject to a medical and to player terms being finalised”.
Varane, a World Cup winner with France, has made 360 appearances for Real.
“Real Madrid wants to show all its affection to Raphaal Varane and his family and wishes him good luck in this new stage of his professional career,” the club said in a statement.
“Our club thanks you for your professionalism and exemplary behaviour during the 10 seasons in which you defended our shirt.”
Varane, who has 79 caps, will become Ole Gunnar Solskjaer’s third signing in this transfer window – following the resigning of goalkeeper Tom Heaton and the arrival of England winger Jadon Sancho from Borussia Dortmund.
BBC Sport understands Varane will quarantine before having his medical, after which he will complete his move.
United, who agreed a fee with Real on Monday have been long-term admirers of Varane, whose contract was due to expire next summer.
Former boss Sir Alex Ferguson originally pursued a deal for the player before his move to Madrid, and Jose Mourinho was also keen to add the defender to his squad during his time at Old Trafford.
Varane’s journey to Old Trafford
After coming through Lens’ academy, Varane broke into the first team at the age of 17, and while he was unable to steer them away from relegation, his performances attracted the attention of some of Europe’s top clubs.
Despite strong interest from United, Real signed the teenager on a six-year contract in 2011, and he went on to make 15 appearances in all competitions during his first season in Spain as Mourinho’s side regained the title.
That was the start of Varane’s impressive trophy haul during his decade in the Spanish capital.
He helped Carlo Ancelotti’s side clinch their 10th European title – ‘La Decima’ – in the 2013-14 season, making seven appearances and partnering Sergio Ramos in the final as they beat Atletico Madrid 4-1 after extra time in Lisbon.
Best success rate from aerial duels by La Liga defenders (2020-21)
Aerial duels
Aerial duels won
Aerial duels win rate
Raphael Varane
96
73
76%
David Garcia
220
162
73.6%
Felipe
105
77
73.3%
Sofian Chakla
52
38
73.1%
Gerard Pique
86
61
70.9%
Jawad El Yamiq
71
50
70.4%
Varane was also a key figure under compatriot Zinedine Zidane, who replaced Rafael Benitez as manager in January 2016, as Los Blancos secured a hat-trick of Champions League titles from 2016-2018.
However, a hamstring injury ruled him out of the 2016 final against Atletico and France’s European Championship campaign that summer, which ended in defeat in the final.
Having battled injuries during the 2016-17 season, Varane enjoyed arguably his strongest year in 2017-18 as Real beat Liverpool in the 2018 Champions League final, before he starred for France at the 2018 World Cup, playing every minute of Les Bleus’ triumphant campaign in Russia.
Varane’s performances for club and country during 2017-18 saw him finish seventh in the Ballon d’Or rankings – the highest-placed defender – and he was named in the Uefa Team of the Year.
Varane also played every minute of France’s Euro 2020 campaign, which ended with a last-16 penalty shootout defeat by Switzerland.
United have outspent rivals in Solskjaer era
Should the Varane deal be completed as expected, United will have spent just short of £400m on players since Solskjaer was appointed manager on a permanent basis in March 2019.
That eclipses the outlay of Manchester City (£298m), Chelsea (£262m), Tottenham (£255m) Arsenal (£243m) and Liverpool (£119m) in the same period.
Varane is the fourth defender United have brought in since conceding 54 goals during the 2018-19 Premier League season, after Harry Maguire, Aaron Wan-Bissaka and Alex Telles.
Having acquired Maguire and Wan-Bissaka in the summer of 2019, the Red Devils conceded 36 goals as they finished third in 2019-20.
They climbed a place to finish second behind Manchester City last season, letting in 44 goals, 12 more than their neighbours.
It is understood any further signings this summer are likely to depend on outgoings.
Players Man Utd have signed during Solskjaer’s reign (fees according to Transfermarkt)
Transfer fee
Club signed from
Jadon Sancho
£73m
Borussia Dortmund
Tom Heaton
Free
Free agent
Donny van de Beek
£35m
Ajax
Amad Diallo
£19m
Atalanta
Alex Telles
£13.5m
Porto
Facundo Pellistri
£7.6m
Penarol
Edinson Cavani
Free
Free agent
Bruno Fernandes
£56m
Sporting Lisbon
Odion Ighalo
Loan
Shanghai Shenhua
Harry Maguire
£78m
Leicester
Aaron Wan-Bissaka
£50m
Crystal Palace
Daniel James
£16m
Swansea
‘Varane will bring leadership and tactical nous’
This certainly seems like an excellent deal for Manchester United.
Varane has precisely the back-story they need to bring leadership and tactical nous to their defence. The experience of starting three Champions League finals victories and a World Cup final win is invaluable in what is a relatively young United squad.
United have been able to exploit a weak transfer market – they were the only realistic option for Varane if he decided to leave Real – and the financial issues affecting all Spain’s leading clubs to come up with a deal attractive enough to entice a player of true international quality.
The big question for United now is whether they are done in the market this summer.
That may well depend on whether Paul Pogba decides to sit out the remaining year of his contract or if he would be willing to accept a lower salary that may be on offer in 12 months’ time in order to get a move to PSG.
Axel Tuanzebe seems the most likely central defender to make way for Varane, potentially on loan to Newcastle, although doubts hang over the futures of Diogo Dalot, Brandon Williams, Jesse Lingard and Phil Jones, who did not make a single appearance last season and has not been involved so far during pre-season games against Derby and QPR.
Balancing the finances is important for United. However, for the fans, they just want to see Varane in action. Coming so soon after Jadon Sancho’s move from Borussia Dortmund was confirmed, optimism around Old Trafford has not been so high for quite some time.
When you’re watching volleyball at the Tokyo Olympics, you might notice a player wearing a different colored jersey than the rest of their team. There’s a good reason for their standout appearance: you’ve just spotted the libero, a specialized player whose unique role requires them to be easily visible at all times.
According to USA Volleyball, the libero is a defensive specialist who can replace any player in the back row without counting toward a team’s substitutions, which in international play are limited to six per se . Introduced in 1998, there are some specific limitations on what a libero can and cannot do while they are on the court. In international play, liberos cannot serve, spike, or rotate into the front row positions. Essentially, they’re a defensive specialist who’s there to help receive serves and make crucial saves during longer rallies.
However, the greatest benefit of having a libero comes in the rules for player substitutions. This unique quality of the role makes it a highly strategic position, especially because the other players on the court rotate throughout the match, and teams may swap in hitters for defensive players, who will eventually end up on the front row.
Although liberos don’t count toward the overall substitution limits, there are some rules about how they can be swapped in. According to the rules of the Fédération Internationale de Volleyball, the official international governing body of the sport, “there must be at least one point played between a libero substituting off for a player” and going back on the court for another player.” In other words, the libero cannot be on the court for the entirety of the game.
If the summer between her first and second year of medical school is indeed the last summer she’ll ever have off in her life Erica Ogwumike might have found the most interesting way to spend it.
She’s playing basketball in the Olympics.
Her hoop dreams on pause during the pandemic, Ogwumike decided to attend medical school at UT Southwestern in Dallas while continuing to train for the Olympics.
And Tuesday, she made it. Ogwumike played four minutes in an 81-72 loss to the U.S. women’s team before heading back to the Olympic Village for more flash card drills and medical research projects.
“The hardest thing is probably just, you know, making sure you know that school comes first regardless,” she said.
Even in the Olympics.
The moment is sweet, but it could’ve been sweeter for the youngest of one of America’s most prolific basketball families with four children of Nigerian-born parents finding success on and off the court.
Two of her older sisters, Nneka and Chiney, play for the Los Angeles Sparks. Another, Olivia, has an MBA and is chasing a doctorate in public policy. All four girls played Division 1 basketball.
The story could’ve been even better, but controversy kept Ogwumike from enjoying these Games with Nneka and Chiney.
After Nneka failed to make the U.S. women’s team — they cited a knee injury but whispers of politics within the organization persist — she attempted to join Erica on the Nigerian national team. FIBA, basketball’s governing body, denied the request citing Nneka’s experience on the American national team throughout her career. Chiney was allowed to play for Nigeria as a “naturalized” citizen but declined.
Following the U.S. women’s victory on Tuesday, American star Diana Taurasi said she wasn’t keen on seeing Nneka in a Nigerian jersey because “I’ve seen her wear the USA jersey a lot.”
Taurasi, who has an Argentine mother, then quipped that she would like to someday play soccer for her mother’s country.
Erica Ogwumike, left, and sister Chiney Ogwumike smile on the court after an exhibition game against the United States on July 18. (Ethan Miller / Getty Images)
U.S. coach Dawn Staley said the Olympics would be better with as many of the sport’s best players competing as possible. And Nneka Ogwumike, a former WNBA MVP and multi-time All-Star, would certainly qualify.
“How you accomplish that is the difficult part,” Staley said. “Would it have been fun to play against all the Ogwumikes? Absolutely. But that didn’t happen. We’re left with wondering. But I’m sure they’ll find a way on the court to represent Nigeria as they aspire to.”
The hope is all three Ogwumikes compete together in future international competitions pending Nneka’s appeal.
“I’m very confident that I’ll be able to play with them in the future. I definitely wanted to experience this with them,” Erica said. “Being first the Olympian in my family… it was supposed to be Nneka. We know that.
“But I’m very fortunate that I can be here and represent my whole family. And they’re really supportive of me.”
Erica, 23, was incredibly close to joining her older sisters in the WNBA, selected in the third round of the 2020 draft and traded to Minnesota. But with no training camps due to the pandemic, she was eventually waived.
Overseas play was an option, but so was her future career. And she picked medical school.
She chronicled her journey, balancing the pre-sunrise workouts with the course load on her YouTube vlog. After studying, she’d get to a gym for a basketball specific workout before diving back into her studying.
Even in Japan, she’s spending time with “Anki” — a software flash card program popular among medical students. She’s unsure which field she’ll ultimately pursue, though dermatology is a strong candidate.
She’s kept her word to herself, not letting basketball get in the way of school. She left one training camp practice earlier this year because of a cardiology lecture. She missed an entire day of training because of commitments to a hematology class.
The flash cards, the lectures, the notes, the Zoom calls, the tired eyes and the sisters back home — it all has hit her throughout these Games. That’s her foundation.
It comes everywhere with her.
“It’s hard not to think retrospectively, like everything that I’ve gone through, everything that I missed, just to get those moments, you know, all the work that I love,” Erica Ogwumike said. “And so whenever you have these amazing moments, the opening ceremony, different big events and things you can sit back like, ‘Wow, you know, I did that.’
“I’m really proud of myself to get to this moment.”
Since the early months of coronavirus pandemic . Greg Locke, the pastor at a Nashville-area Global Vision Bible Church, has repeatedly called covid a hoax, undermined emergency mandates and refused to comply with guidance from public health officials.
If “you start showing up [with] all these masks and all this nonsense, I will ask you to leave,” Locke, 45, told scores of Global Vision Bible Church parishioners during his sermon on Sunday. His statement was followed by cheers and applause.
“I am not playing these Democrat games up in this church,” he added.
Locke’s fiery five-minute diatribe, in which he also denied the existence of the delta variant, comes as claims of vaccination rates in his home state slow and infection rates climb. So far, about 44 percent of Tennesseans in the United States have received at least one dose of the vaccine, according to The Post’s vaccine tracker, making it among the states with the lowest rate. The state recently claimed that 98 percent of people who died of covid and 97 percent of covid hospitalizations are among the unvaccinated.
The vaccine rollout in Tennessee made national headlines after the controversial firing of the state’s top immunization official, Michelle Fiscus, on July 12. Fiscus’s firing was the casualty of the Tennessee Department of Health’s campaign to encourage teenagers to get vaccinated against the coronavirus. The effort attracted ire from Republican state lawmakers.
“I feel like the [health] department was gagged,” she said.
Locke’s evangelical church in Mt. Juliet, Tenn., about 20 miles east of downtown Nashville, has grown during the pandemic, US media reported. The pastor’s controversial commentary on covid and the 2020 presidential election has attracted far-right churchgoers.
During a sermon last month, Locke called President Biden a fraud and “a sex trafficking, demon-possessed mongrel,” a reference to QAnon, an extremist ideology.
He has also claimed that the pandemic is “fake,” that the death count is “manipulated” and that the vaccine is a “dangerous scam.”
And the pastor has preached about the vaccine, including claiming that it’s made of “aborted fetal tissue.”
During a sermon in May, Locke told churchgoers that he wasn’t getting the vaccine and would refuse to promote it.
“I discourage everybody under this tent to get it,” he said.
Locke has also openly defied the state’s emergency mandates. In July 2020, he posted on Facebook that the church was remaining open and that people did not have to wear masks or social distance.
“I don’t care if they send the military, they roll up in there with tanks . . . ladies and gentleman, we are staying open,” he said, according to Newsweek. “We are packed to capacity. You ain’t gotta wear a mask.”
Strutting back and forth on a stage beneath a sprawling red-and-white striped circus tent on Sunday, Locke launched into yet another impassioned monologue. This time, he warned churchgoers to not wear masks and railed against the possibility of more shutdowns.
“They will be serving Frostys in hell before we shut this place down, just because a buck wild, demon-possessed government tells us to,” Locke said, referencing the frozen dessert from Wendy’s.
“Don’t believe this delta variant nonsense,” he continued. “Stop it!”
He advised parishioners who are looking for services with social distancing “don’t come to this one” and chastised other churches for following public health advisories and abstaining from certain rituals as cases rise.
“A bunch of pastors talking about how much they want to see people heal, and they’re afraid to baptize people because of a delta variant – I’m sick of it,” Locke said. “I ain’t playing these stupid games.”
Toward the end of his rant, Locke made one final warning.
“I’m going to be a problem moving forward,” he said. “I’m not giving in to this mess.”
Nigeria’s central bank is halting dollar sales to exchange bureaus, saying they have become conduits for graft and illicit flows of money.
“It is a huge haemorrhage on our scarce foreign exchange reserves and it cannot continue,” the bank’s governor, Godwin Emefiele, said on Tuesday.
The decision by the central bank, which held the benchmark lending rate at 11.5% for the fifth time in succession, follows World Bank pressure on Nigeria to provide a clearer foreign exchange management system – and converge its multiple exchange rates.
Nigeria has several exchange rates operating in parallel, a system put in place during a 2016 oil price crash because the government was seeking to avoid a large official devaluation of the naira as a matter of national pride.
Inflation has moderated after hitting multi-year highs this year because of the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic and falling oil prices, but foreign currency reserves remain under pressure.
Nigeria relies on oil for 90% of foreign exchange and another price crash last year severely limited its access to dollars.
The central bank has devalued the naira’s official rate three times since the pandemic took hold early last year, and has limited dollar access for imports, but a wide gap between the official naira exchange rate and the parallel market has persisted.
An exchange bureau official who declined to be named said it had yet to receive a formal notification from the central bank.
Emefiele said the bank would channel more foreign exchange to commercial banks for consumers who had legitimate needs, and that it would no longer process or issue new licences for bureau de change operators.
“We will deal ruthlessly with the Nigerian banks who have collaborated with these illegal foreign exchange operators,” he said.
Razia Khan, chief economist for Africa and the Middle East at Standard Chartered, said supplying more foreign exchange via other avenues would help, but would not necessarily solve the central bank’s problems.
“The challenge in the interim will be to stop the emergence of a new parallel market,” Khan said in an email. “Unless the supply of FX improves meaningfully, this is likely to remain a risk.”
Emefiele also accused some international organisations and embassies of utilising illegal foreign exchange dealers to fund their local operations in “flagrant contravention of our foreign exchange laws and regulations in Nigeria.”
The World Bank has said economic growth has resumed in Nigeria after the COVID-19 shock but is lagging the rest of sub-Saharan Africa, with food inflation, heightened insecurity and stalled reforms increasing poverty.
The World Health Organisation has Tuesday warned that Electronic cigarettes and similar devices are dangerous to health and must be regulated to curb the tobacco industry’s tactics to get young people hooked on nicotine.
“Nicotine is highly addictive. Electronic nicotine delivery systems are harmful, and must be better regulated,” said WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus.
The WHO Report on the Global Tobacco Epidemic 2021, which focused on new and emerging products, was published on Tuesday and said ENDS should be tightly regulated for maximum public health protection.
“Where they are not banned, governments should adopt appropriate policies to protect their populations from the harms of ENDS, and to prevent their uptake by children, adolescents and other vulnerable groups,” Tedros said.
The UN health agency’s eighth annual report said ENDS manufacturers often target youths with thousands of tantalising flavours – the document listed 16,000 — and reassuring statements.
Former New York mayor Michael Bloomberg, the WHO’s global ambassador for non-communicable diseases, said there were still more than a billion smokers around the world.
“As cigarette sales have fallen, tobacco companies have been aggressively marketing new products – like e-cigarettes and heated tobacco products — and lobbied governments to limit their regulation,” he said.
“Their goal is simple: to hook another generation on nicotine. We can’t let that happen.”
Concern for Youngsters
The UN health agency is particularly concerned by people under 20 using e-cigarettes due to the harmful effects of nicotine on brain development.
The WHO also believes that children who use these devices are more likely to smoke later in life.
However, regulating such products is not necessarily straightforward because the product range is very diverse and rapidly evolving, said Ruediger Krech, director of the WHO’s health promotion department.
“Distinguishing the nicotine-containing products from the non-nicotine, or even from some tobacco-containing products, can be almost impossible. This is just one way the industry subverts and undermines tobacco control measures,” he said.
The WHO recommends that governments do whatever they can to prevent non-smokers from taking up electronic cigarettes, for fear of “renormalising smoking in society”.
The report found that 32 countries have banned the sale of ENDS.
A further 79 have adopted at least one partial measure to either prohibit the use of such products in public places, prohibit their advertising, promotion and sponsorship or require the display of health warnings on packaging.
“This still leaves 84 countries where they are not regulated or restricted in any way,” the WHO said.
The Geneva-based organisation stressed that efforts to regulate electronic cigarettes should not distract from the fight against smoking.
Though the proportion of smokers has fallen in many countries, population growth means that the total number of smokers remains “stubbornly high,” the WHO said.
“Tobacco is responsible for the death of eight million people a year, including one million from second-hand smoke,” it stressed.
Tunisia’s dismissed Prime Minister Hichem Mechichi says he will not cling on to his position, to avoid complicating matters further.
He was dismissed by President Kais Saied on Sunday, and the parliament was temporarily suspended in a controversial move described by the speaker as a “constitutional coup” – which the president denied.
In a statement released on his Facebook page, Mechichi acknowledges the political failures of recent years.
He says his year-long position as head of government came at a difficult period in Tunisia’s history, with a “strangling economic and social crisis due to successive political elites… failing to meet people’s expectations”.
Mechichi said he understood the despair of Tunisians and the lack of confidence in the political class, adding that there were “great disparities” between what the people wanted and the priorities of political parties.
His statement appears conciliatory, and could serve to slightly temper the political tension plaguing the country in this uncertain period.
It also appears to break away from a nominal alliance he had formed with the speaker of parliament in recent months, which was part of the ongoing power struggle with the presidency.
Authorities in Haiti have arrested a top official who served as general security coordinator when President Jovenel Moïse was assassinated, according to his attorney.
Jean Laguel Civil joins more than two dozen suspects arrested by Haiti National Police as the investigation continues into the July 7 attack at Moïse’s private home.
Civil’s attorney, Reynold Georges, called his client’s arrest politically motivated. It wasn’t immediately clear if Civil had been charged with anything.
The arrest comes as over 1,000 demonstrators gathered around one of Haiti’s most notorious gang leaders to commemorate Moïse.
The crowd was mostly dressed in white as they cheered on Jimmy Cherizier, a former police officer who now leads “G9,” a federation of nine gangs that officials have blamed for a spike in violence and kidnappings in recent months.
Earlier, the crowd sang as they made a circle around a bonfire and threw salt into it as part of a ceremony to honor Moïse. Many had their faces covered so as not to be identified.
Moïse was shot several times during a July 7 attack in which his wife was seriously injured. At least 26 people have been arrested, including 18 former Colombian soldiers.
Police are still looking for various suspects, including a former rebel leader and an ex-Haitian senator. On Monday, they identified another suspect: Haiti Superior Court Judge Windelle Coq Thelot.
The Algerian authorities have scrapped the quarantine period for people arriving in the country despite an alleged surge in coronavirus infections.
All arrivals are now only required to present a negative PCR test taken in the last 36 hours, and take a new one on arrival.
Since 1 June all those arriving to Algeria were being requested to self-isolate for five days in a hotel, which they would have to pay for.
Many Algerians returning to the country from abroad were angered by the measures and criticised the services offered at some of the hotels designated for quarantine.
The new measures are designed to ease the return of thousands of Algerians stranded abroad.
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