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Hollywood’s acting community provided a stark contrast to the all-white acting nominees in this year’s Oscar race with Saturday’s 2016 Screen Actors Guild Awards. Idris Elba collected two solo Actor statuettes, sharing the night’s honors with other black performers Queen Latifah, Viola Davis, and Uzo Aduba. “Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to diverse TV,” said Elba, who came up to present after winning trophies for his work in the Netflix film Beasts of No Nation — which many felt was unjustly overlooked at the Academy Award nominations — and BBC TV show Luther , and right after Viola Davis won her third career SAG Award for her role in ABC’s How to Get Away With Murder .

 On Tuesday the 26th of January, 2016 the College of Medical Sciences University of Maiduguri held her 2016 attestation and oath taking ceremony for medical and dental graduates. Dr Aminudeen Ibrahim Idris, 26, from Dambam LGA of Bauchi state (pictured above) took oath as a dental surgeon and the best graduating student with‎ record breaking academic achievement of 3 distinctions out the 4 final year clinical courses in dentistry.

The 20-year-old central defender has signed a four-and-a-half-year contract. He said: ‘I am very happy to sign for Chelsea, a world-famous club with a reputation for major success. I am delighted to be in the Premier League, the best league in the world, and can’t wait to meet my team-mates and get going.  ‘I am still at the beginning of my career but I believe this is the place to develop and learn from some of the best players in the world.’

  Arsène Wenger is confident that Arsenal will complete the signings of the Nigeria youth internationals Kelechi Nwakali and Samuel Chukwueze before the transfer deadline on Monday.     But the manager suggested he would make no senior additions to supplement the purchase of Mohamed Elneny as the club’s injury situation had improved significantly.     Wenger goes into Saturday’s FA Cup tie at home to Burnley with only Santi Cazorla and Jack Wilshere as long-term casualties. Francis Coquelin is back in contention weeks ahead of schedule after a knee problem and Tomas Rosicky also back from knee trouble.     Danny Welbeck has returned to full training, having been out since April of last year with a knee injury, but he will need a few more weeks before he is competitive again.

Nigerian starlet Kelechi Iheanacho scored a hat-trick as City kept alive their dream of an unprecedented quadruple of trophies by easing to a 4-0 win at Aston Villa, last season’s beaten finalists. Iheanacho opened the scoring in the fourth minute, following in to score after Fernando’s header was cleared off the line, and the 19-year-old forward added a second with a 24th-minute penalty. He completed his hat-trick with 16 minutes remaining, seizing on ex-City defender Micah Richards’s back-pass and surging through to score, before Raheem Sterling completed the scoring.

  Two sons of former Minister of state for Defence, Senator Musiliu Obanikoro,  Messr Babajide and  Gbolahan Obanikoro are currently on the radar of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC. Sources at the anti- graft agency disclosed that N4,745,000,000.00 was traced to a company, Sylvan McNamara Limited, in which they have interest. The money was allegedly paid in several tranches into the company’s account number: 0026223714 with Diamond bank from the Office of the National Security Adviser account with the CBN. According to the source, all the transfers were effected between June and December 2014, a period that coincided with the preparation for and conduct of the Ekiti state governorship election, which ushered in the current administration of Governor Ayodele Fayose.

A full panel of Nigeria’s Supreme Court of Nigeria sitting in Abuja, on Friday, sacked the senators and members of the House of Representatives from Anambra State. The decision swept away a host of lawmakers from Anambra State, including the Senator representing Anambra North Senatorial District, Stella Oduah and her counterpart representing Anambra South Senatorial District, Andy Ubah. Also affected are members of the House of Representatives elected on the ticket of the PDP. Chris Uba, younger brother to Andy Uba, and Prince Emeka are expected to take over seats vacated by  Andy Uba and Stella Oduah respectively.

 Sen. Dino Melaye says he respects former President Olusegun Obasanjo but called him out for allegedly introducing bribery to the National Assembly. According to a report by TheCable, Dino said this while reacting to the letter Obasanjo sent to members of the Senate on January 13th where he berated them over their plans to buy more cars. He said;

The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission has arrested and detained the immediate past Chief of Air Force, Adesola Amosu. Mr. Amosu, an air vice marshal, who was retired last year, alongside other military chiefs, is allegedly being detained over allegation of corruption in arms procurement during his tenure. An official of the EFCC confirmed the development. The official said Mr. Amosu was arrested on Wednesday. President Muhammadu Buhari had recently directed the EFCC to investigate the former air chief and other serving and retired military officers over alleged misconduct established against them. Among those to be investigated include the embattled former National Security Adviser, Sambo Dasuki, former Chief of Defence Staff, Marshal Alex Badeh and another former Chief of Air Staff, Mohammed Umar. Mr. Dasuki is currently facing charges over alleged $2.1 billion arms procurement deal.

  The PDP National Publicity Secretary regained his freedom this evening. He's pictured having dinner with his family tonight. More photos after the cut...

   Mr. Smart Ajaja, a Nigerian rights activist, based in the United States of America, ‎ yesterday, said the refusal of former President Goodluck Jonathan to probe alleged multi-million dollars allegedly found in one the nation’s service chiefs, during his tenure was the reason America refused to sell arms to his administration. Ajaja, who gave insight into how some persons he described as very vulnerable Nigerians abroad serve as fronts to looters of the country’s treasury,said the US govt, which uncovered the money, gave Jonathan term upon which he could get its support. He said Jonathan refusal to probe a service chief, who he did not name, resulted to the refusal of American government to sell arms to his government.

President Muhammadu Buhari has stated that further devaluation of Naira would kill the currency, insisting that it was one decision he was not ready to take at the moment. The president said he was not also ready to inflict more hardship on the poor citizens of Nigeria who have already had doses of penury. He stressed that while export-driven economies could benefit from devaluation of their currencies, Naira devaluation will only result in further inflation and hardship for the poor and middle classes in Nigeria’s import-dependent economy. President Buhari who spoke on Wednesday in Nairobi, Kenya during a meeting with Nigerians resident in the county has been away on official visit.

 Singing sensation Flavour‘s manager Benjamin Omesiete and his sweetheart Ifeyinwa Onyiuke wed this December 2015 and January 2016 amidst the love of family and friends in Enugu. The bride is a beauty entrepreneur, she sells hair extensions here. Here are their beautiful pre-wedding, traditional Igba Nkwu and white wedding photos, as well as their love story, exclusive to BellaNaija Weddings. Flavour performed at the wedding (of course!), Selebobo and rapper Phyno as well.

    According to les Parisen newspaper, the 34 year old PSG star striker has been handed a 700,000 euros ($760,000) monthly pay-rise making him by far the highest-paid footballer in France. Ibrahimovic joined the club in 2012 from AC Milan and has scored 127 goals in 156 games since then. He now gets 1.5 million euros ($1.1 million) a month before tax under the performance-based hike agreed late last year.

Oprah Winfrey just made more news, saying she lost 26 pounds on her Weight Watchers diet. Even better, her wallet got a lot fatter. According to Market Watch, Winfrey racked in a whopping $12 million for merely writing about how she was able to lose weight and still eat bread. "I lost 26 pounds, and I have eaten bread every single day," she said in her testimonial clip. An hour after O sent her story into the Twitterverse, Weight Watchers shares climbed slightly over $2 a share, and since Winfrey owns roughly 6 million shares, the surge in share prices made the celeb $12 million just like that.

It’s 2016. We now have hover boards (kind of). Millions of households have personal drones. Plus, for the 7 billion people on earth, we have over 2 BILLION cell phones. So, what happens when someone with 1 of those 2 billion cell phones connects to your website? Or, if you don’t have a website (yet), is there a way you can still capitalize on this massive opportunity, too? Well, that’s what you need to be asking yourself as we head into 2016: Are you  tr uly optimizing this massive mobile opportunity?

The Supreme Court has upheld the outcome of the April 11 governorship election that ‎brought Governor Nyesom Wike of Rivers State to power. The apex court in an unanimous judgment, restored the declaration of Wike as the valid winner of the poll by the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC. Justice Kekere-Ekun who delivered the lead verdict, held that three separate appeals that were filed by Wike, PDP and INEC, were meritorious. Concurrent judgments of both the Rivers State Governorship Election ‎Petition Tribunal and that of the Abuja Division of the Court of Appeal were all set aside by the Supreme Court. The apex court panel headed by the Chief Justice of Nigeria, Justice Mahmud Mohammed however reserved their reasons for the judgement till February 12.

  Binta Diamond Diallo is finally speaking out. The alleged second baby mama of superstar Wizkid spoke exclusively to TheShadeRoom yesterday and she opened up on how Wizkid hasn’t stepped up to the plate since she gave birth.

Just when we were trying to get our heads around the newly introduced stamp duty, there are strong indications that VAT will increase. CCTV Africa reports; Nigeria’s government is considering changes to the tax regime as part of efforts to overcome the crisis brought on by falling oil prices. Vice President Yemi Osinbajo said that the government is looking at increasing tax coverage. The government plans to increase value-added tax from 5 percent, which is among the world’s lowest VAT rates, and broadening the tax base. Osinbajo said that at present they were only collecting just about 20 percent of the potential tax.

Trial of the embattled National Publicity Secretary of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, Chief Olisa Metuh continued, yesterday, as a senior official from the Office of the National Security Adviser, ONSA, Mr. Baleh Ndam, told the Federal High Court, Abuja, that Metuh’s firm, Destra Investments Limited, was among 78 beneficiaries of the alleged fraudulent payment from the ONSA without executing any contract. Ndam, who testified before trial judge, Justice Okon Abang, added that the N400million electronically wired into the defendant’s company account amounted to alleged fraudulent payment for a contract not awarded. Ndam is the third witness the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC, has brought to testify against the PDP spokesman, who alongside his firm, is answering to a seven-count criminal charge bordering on alleged criminal breach of trust and illegal diversion of public funds to the tune of N400 million.

  OVER 50 million active accounts in the banking sector will be enlisted in the new revenue drive of the Federal Government with the takeoff of the N50 stamp duty on financial transactions. The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) has already communicated the commencement of the N50 stamp duty deduction on receipt of financial value of N1000 and above from bank accounts to financial institutions. However, only transfers from personal account to another personal account, both at the same bank or another bank are exempted from the charge. With the act already in force, there are projections that the total number of direct cash lodgements in various accounts in banks, the transfer of cash arising from Point of Sale, Automated Teller Machines and mobile money transactions, among others, may hit 50 million in volume per day, with an estimated value of about N2.5 billion daily.

  Brent crude rallies to $32 • Anxiety as MPC meets; devaluation, survival on the burner ALTHOUGH the price of oil may at present be as low as $22 per barrel, the Minister of State for Petroleum Resources, Ibe Kachikwu, says Nigeria’s case is not hopeless. He says Nigeria would still make profit even if oil drops to $20 as cost of producing a barrel of crude oil has been put at an average of $13 per barrel onshore.

A group of Mechanical Engineering students from the University of Lagos have built an electric-powered car from scratch, using locally sourced materials. The project, which began in 2014, was initiated by two engineering graduates (then undergrads), Olukoya Olusanya and Maduka Smart, who later enlisted the help of other mechanical engineering students. The result of the collaboration was a zero emission electric powered prototype vehicle called dubbed the DOVE P1. The DOVE P1, which is made of a fibre glass body, weighs in at about 200kg and is capable of speeds of up to 35 km/h.

The Akwa Ibom State government has endorsed the staging of The Face of Nigeria Beauty and Style pageant in its state capital, Uyo. The grand finale of the show is scheduled to take place on September 23, 2016, at the prestigious Le’Meridien Ibom Hotel and Golf Resort, Uyo. In the endorsement letter issued to All Times Promotions Ltd, organisers of the pageant, dated December 15, 2015, by the Akwa Ibom State Tourism Board, the state government recommended the pageant to Nigerians for identification and support.

 The Chief Judge of the Federal Capital Territory High Court, Justice Ishaq Bello, has granted bail to the embattled National Publicity Secretary of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, Chief Olisa Metuh, to the tune of N300million with two sureties in like sum. The Judge maintained that the place of abode of the sureties must be verified by the court. Ruling on the bail application Metuh made through his lawyer, Dr. Onyechi Ikpeazu, SAN, the Judge held: “I am satisfied that the oral application of the defendant succeeds, accordingly, he is granted bail in the sum of N300million with two sureties in the like sum, whose places of abode must be verified for easy access”.

 The fact that Google is the default search engine on your browser is not a coincidence. It's a $1 billion deal between Google and Apple. That was the previously unknown revelation in a Jan. 14 court hearing around a completely unrelated issue: Oracle's lawsuit against Google for a long-running and very boring copyright dispute about whether Google borrowed Oracle's Java technology to build Android phones. The documents show that Google paid Apple $1 billion in 2014 to be the preferred search engine on the iPhone, reported Bloomberg News. The two companies then agreed to share revenue — presumably from search ads — but it's not clear how the money was split. Apple and Google both lobbied the court to strike the details of their search deal from court documents, Bloomberg reported, with Google arguing it was "highly sensitive." When Google asked the court to hide the details of the deal, it said the information could hinder similar deals with other companies, ...

Life can't get any better for Jordan Spieth. Not only has the young adult put one of golf's greats, Tiger Woods, in the shade on the fairway, he has also knocked ol' Tiger off the top of the money charts. Spieth earned $53million last year to dethrone Woods as golf's top earner and he has splashed some of that money on a mansion in the city of Dallas, Texas. The $8.5million, five-bedroom house comes with several lavish features which includes a pool, an in-house gym and basketball court amongst others. 

Arsenal will not stand in Aaron Ramsey's way of a move to Barcelona, with the Primera Division giants set to step up their interest in the midfielder, according to reports. According to an exclusive piece from John Richardson in the Daily Express, Barcelona are happy to go as high as £60 million in their attempts to sign the Welshman, who was apparently watched by the Catalans during Wednesday’s 3-3 draw with Liverpool, a game in which the 25-year-old scored a fine goal. “Barcelona attempted to land the former Cardiff [City] attacking midfielder last summer only for Arsenal boss Arsene Wenger to reject their overtures,”  wrote Richardson. “But I understand from sources close to Ramsey that the Gunners won’t deny the player the opportunity of joining the likes of Lionel Messi, Luis Suarez and Neymar at Barcelona next season.” It’d certainly be a tantalising proposition for Ramsey, who continues to show his value to the Gunners with brilliant performances. As noted by MisterChip, the...

 Winning a league title is as much about the remorseless accumulation of mundane victories as it is about results against the elite, and reeling off those victories against the Premier League's mid-ranking and lesser lights has been a problem for City. This may come to be seen as a run-of-the-mill, tick-the-box win, and in the sense that, having taken the lead, City never looked like losing it, perhaps it was, but equally it would be hard to pretend this was City playing at anything like its best. It would be wrong to be too critical of a side that has just won by four clear goals but equally it would be fallacious to pretend this suddenly heralds an upturn in City's form. This was that oddest of things: An unconvincing 4-0 win. Once again there was a slow start and again without Vincent Kompany it looked vulnerable defensively. There was little urgency about anything it did. But two goal...

Eighteen military chiefs that President Muhammadu Buhari ordered the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission to probe will start appearing before the commission on Monday. Saturday PUNCH learnt that the commission had sent invitations to some of the Generals and the companies, whose names featured in the report submitted to the President. A source in the commission stated, “We have sent invitations to many of them and as from Monday, they will start coming.” President Buhari had on Friday directed the EFCC to carry out further investigation into the alleged misconduct established against some retired and serving officers of the Nigerian Air Force and Nigerian Army. Those affected in the order include embattled former National Security Adviser, Col. ​Sambo Dasuki (retd.); former Chief of Defence Staff, Air Chief Marshal Alex Badeh (retd.); and two former Chiefs of Air Staff, Air Marshal MD Umar (retd.) and Air Marshal Adesola Amosun (retd.).

An ironical twist of fate, West Africa has been declared free of the two-year Ebola epidemic just as the sub-region is facing a renewed disease epidemic threat in the guise of Lassa fever. For most West Africans, particularly Nigerians that had an unpalatable taste of the devastating Ebola outbreak, it isn’t yet time to heave a sigh of relief. The West African Ebola outbreak was the worst in history. Between December 2013 and November 2015, Ebola infected almost 29,000 people and claimed 11,315 lives across the sub-region and even beyond.Nigeria recorded nine deaths out of a total of 20 confirmed Ebola cases. On Thursday, Liberia, the worst Ebola-hit country with 4,800 deaths, got the all-clear from the World Health Organisation. West Africa is Ebola free, but no one can heave a sigh of relief because Lassa fever is taking over where Ebola has left off. And it has begun with Nigeria.

 Prof. Charles Soludo has described the 2016 budget presented by President Buhari as a replica of the one by former president Goodluck Jonathan. The former governor of Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) stated this while speaking at the 13th Daily Trust Dialogue in Abuja, on Thurs Jan 14. "The present budget is more of the same to the previous ones. Mr. Vice President Prof. Yemi Osinbajo, If you scale your budget on the scale of GDP, it is almost the same with the previous government," 

  A medical doctor with Rivers State-owned Braithwait Memorial Specialist Hospital, BMH, Dr. Livy Ijamala, has died from Lassa Fever, bringing to three the number of people killed by the disease in the state. Chairman of the state branch of Nigerian Medical Association, NMA, Dr. Furo Green, disclosed this on thursday Port Harcourt, saying the late doctor, Ijamala, who died in the early hours from the ailment, had contact with patients infected with Lassa Fever.Dr. Furo added that the late medical doctor had been buried in line with recommendations of World Health Organization, WHO, for deaths from contagious diseases.

Manchester United are reportedly hoping to beat Premier League rivals Chelsea to the signing of Milan striker Carlos Bacca, but competition from Atletico Madrid could pose a major obstacle to both English outfits. Spanish magazine Don Balon alleged the Blues have a £30 million bid in the pipeline for the Colombia international, but interest from the Red Devils could squash their pursuit United manager Louis van Gaal is currently leaning on Anthony Martial and captain Wayne Rooney to provide firepower up front, while Marouane Fellaini has been utilised as an alternative centre-forward on occasion.

Zinedine Zidane’s patience is already reportedly running out with Real Madrid midfielder James Rodriguez, with the Colombia star said to be facing a battle to convince the new manager he can be a regular first-team player. The report comes from Alejandro Alcazar in Sport, suggesting Zidane "doesn’t even want to see a painting of James Rodriguez." In the piece, Alcazar writes the Frenchman has "realised James is not in condition to be an important player at Madrid," and even though every player is getting a fresh start under the new manager, "he’s beginning to feel as though he is fighting a losing battle with James."

 Arsène Wenger buried the frustration of conceding a 90th-minute equaliser at Liverpool to insist Arsenal’s display in an enthralling 3-3 draw at Anfield had strengthened his belief in his team’s Premier League title credentials. Arsenal fell behind twice to Roberto Firmino goals and led through Olivier Giroud’s exquisite turn and finish until the final minute of normal time, when the Liverpool substitutes Christian Benteke and Joe Allen combined to produce a merited point for Jürgen Klopp’s team. Visiting players were visibly distraught on the final whistle having failed to preserve their lead, with Arsenal now level on points with Leicester City at the top of the table. But it was an upbeat Wenger who afterwards insisted his team had shown the characteristics demanded of a genuine title challenger. Liverpool and Arsenal draw thriller after Firmino and Giroud doubles

    The financial sector appears to have entered a heightened pressure, yesterday, as both the foreign exchange and stock market sustained major negative trends. The Naira depreciated further to a 43-year low at N305 per dollar as scarcity of dollars intensified in the unofficial market. From an average of N287 per dollar on Tuesday, the parallel market exchange rate rose to an average of N305 per dollar across the country. Similarly, the new year stock market haemorrhage entered the eighth day yesterday, with a total N1.22 trillion losses to investors, giving a year-to-date decline of 12.36 per cent in market capitalisation. The market key index, the Nigerian Stock Exchange All Share Index, NSE ASI, declined year-to-date by same margin. The stock exchange, which opened this year at market capitalisation of N9.851 trillion began a free fall till yesterday, closing at N8.63 trillion while the NSE ASI which opened the year at 28,642.25 points clos...

   Federal government on Wednesday gave nod to the request by the Lagos State government to borrow additional $200 million from the World Bank to finance its massive social infrastructures.  The approval was one singular item that dominated the meeting of the Federal Executive Council, FEC, held at the presidential villa, Abuja. Briefing State House Correspondents at the end of the meeting, the Minister of Information, Alhaji Lai Mohammed and the Minister of Works, Power and Housing, Mr. Babatunde Fasola stated that the loan would enable the state government to meet its infrastructural needs. Specifically speaking, Fasola who is the immediate past governor of the State said that the loan was initially $600 million, revealing that the agreement was made in 2011.

Former Chelsea team doctor Eva Carneiro's together with her husband arrived at the London South Employment Tribunal in Croydon to begin her constructive dismissal case against the club. The preliminary hearing will take place today & is expected to be in private before an employment judge. The 42yr old doctor was dropped from first-team duties after Mourinho criticized her and first-team physio Jon Fearn for going onto the pitch to treat Eden Hazard on the opening day of the season.

  Preparations to stage world’s first orange beauty pageant, known as the Face of Nigeria Beauty and Style pageant has begun with the organisers- All Times Nigeria promotions Limited selecting Uyo, the Akwa Ibom State capital, to host the grand finale, fixed for  Friday, September 23, 2016. The theme of the 2016 edition of the Orange beauty festival is- Celebrating the best of Nigeria , while the charity work centres on promoting the rights of the Nigerian Girl-Child to education. Consistent with our mission of celebrating one state per edition of The Face of Nigeria, Akwa Ibom State has been chosen by the Management of the Orange pageant, for promotion and celebration. Accordingly, Akwa Ibom State would have a special status and enjoy massive attention in our communication coverage. This involves celebrating the beauties of Akwa Ibom State as the fastest growing destination, South South Nigeria.

Twitter's most beloved features is set to change. The company is planning to extend its 140-character limit to as many as 10,000, according to a person familiar with the matter. Twitter’s fans were quick to complain that such a change, expected to be announced by the end of March, would spoil the brevity and speed of the real-time service. The character limit that forces users to pen snappy tweets could give way to the longer essays found on Facebook. It could transform Twitter into more of a public blogging platform rather than one that is succinct and well-suited to quips and breaking news headlines. This person said, however, that Twitter Inc. is aiming to retain the look and feel of the user timeline. For tweets that are longer than 140 characters, users will have to click and expand to see the rest of the text. As users write beyond the 140-character limit, Twitter will signal to them that they have crossed the threshold as a way to encourage brevity.