News & Announcements

Chelsea have signed centre-back, Kalidou Koulibaly, on a four-year deal from Serie A side Napoli.
The Senegal international, according to the BBC, joined Napoli from Genk in 2014 and made 317 appearances for the Italian side.

The 31-year-old arrival at Stamford Bridge follows the departures of defenders Antonio Rudiger to Real Madrid and Andreas Christensen to Barcelona, both on free transfers.
“I’m very happy to be here with this team at Chelsea,” said Koulibaly.

“It’s a big team in the world and my dream was always to play in the Premier League. Chelsea came first to get me in 2016 but we didn’t make it. Now when they came to me I accepted it because they really wanted me to come to the Premier League to play for them.

“When I spoke to my good friends Edou [Mendy] and Jorginho they made my choice easier.”
Koulibaly made his senior debut for Senegal in September 2015 and has since earned 62 caps, captaining the team to victory at the 2021 Africa Cup of Nations.

He becomes Chelsea’s second signing since the Todd Boehly-led takeover after Raheem Sterling joined the club in a £50m deal.
Boehly said, “Kalidou Koulibaly is one of the world’s elite defenders and we are delighted to be welcoming him to Chelsea.

“A great leader and an exemplary team player, Kalidou brings a wealth of experience and attributes that will benefit our squad and the club as a whole.”

The Presidency on Friday said there is no advisory before President Muhammadu Buhari from the Department of State Service (DSS) on the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) running mate.
An online platform had claimed that the DSS raised the alarm that Muslim-Muslim tickets would destabilize Nigeria. But the Senior Special Assistant to the President on Media and Publicity, Malam Garba Shehu, described the report as false.

“We wish to advise well-meaning Nigerians to ignore a laughably puerile report by an apparently pirate online newspaper seeking to sow division and chaos on the choice of Governor Kashim Shettima as the Running Mate of our Party’s Presidential Candidate, Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu.
“This so-called newspaper is like a deadly virus. Stay safe by avoiding its toxic reports,” the statement read.
An online news platform had said an intelligence report by the DSS revealed that the APC presidential candidate’s decision to nominate a fellow Muslim as vice-presidential candidate for the 2023 presidential election was a recipe for renewed sectarian crises that could destabilize Nigeria.”

Adekunle Kosoko, a Nigerian singer popularly known as Adekunle Gold, has revealed his struggle with sickle cell anaemia.
In a bombshell newsletter to fans on Friday, the ‘Sade’ crooner wrote in detail how the disease, compounded with his parents’ dire financial status, negatively impacted his childhood
He also narrated how he once suffered a painful crisis that made him plead to God to take his life.
The newsletter read in part, “It feels liberating to finally be able to share this part of my life with you, to be able to speak my truth finally. When I talk about how I struggled to get to where I am today, I need you to know that my struggle was real.

“I was born with sickle cell disease. It was life and death, it was physical, mental, financial, you name it and I went through it all. It was tough, painful, and frustrating. I lived with a sickness no one around me understood, I lived with restrictions all my childhood.
“I wasn’t able to join some of the minor child play and liberating activities like going out in the rain. The times when I insisted and rebelled against my parents’ orders and went out in the rain, I would end up having a crisis.”

While his parents could not afford the constant bills, he appreciated his mother for always taking him to church for prayers.
Related News Sickle cell and insecurity Capturing sickle cell disease as a disability Sickle cell and psychology (II)The singer also narrated one of his “most intense crises” at the age of 20, which resulted in him praying to God for death, and later served as a turning point in his life.

“I begged God to take my life because I couldn’t understand what I did to deserve the pain my body and mind were under,” he said. “As usual, with sickle crisis after some days, the pain subsided and God asked me; ‘That end you begged me for, do you still want it?’ Of course, I said no, and that was when everything changed for me.

“That was when I realized that I had been given another opportunity to live my dreams and to show those that mocked me that sickle cell anaemia was never going to end me, that it was never going to hold me back from my dreams and aspirations.”
AG Baby revealed that while he still had the symptoms once in a while, the disease had taught him resilience, discipline, and built his character as a whole.
Encouraging fans with his story, the singer admonished those dealing with sickle cell disease to ensure it did not define them.

“Don’t allow it to limit your dreams or cap your potential. Spread your wings and dream big! Hope to see you soaring the big skies,” he concluded.

The International Air Transport Association (IATA) has expressed shock at the announcement by the government of the Netherlands that it would cut the number of annual flights at Schiphol Airport to 440,000, which is a 20 percent cut to Schiphol’s potential cap.

This is just as Heathrow airport management has warned that it would continue to cut flights to reduce the upsurge of passengers who throng the airport during summer.

“This sudden decision is a shocking blow to aviation, jobs, and the economy of the Netherlands. It comes on top of a tripling of the passenger tax, and a 37 percent rise in airport charges. We are seeing a throttling of air connectivity which has been steadily built up for 100 years, and supported large parts of the Dutch economy and the aspirations of millions of Dutch travellers,” said IATA’s Director General, Willie Walsh.

IATA said the justification put forward for the cut is not supported by facts. The government claims that the cuts would reduce noise and deliver a significant reduction in NOx emissions. But aviation’s NOx contribution is around one percent of total NOx deposition in the Netherlands. The redistributed noise paths that are also a part of this initiative would actually increase the number of people exposed to aircraft noise.

Prior to the pandemic, IATA said aviation supported more than 300,000 jobs and €22 billion in GDP to the economy of the Netherlands. Key to this economic contribution was the connectivity driven by Schiphol’s global hub airport role. In 2019, Amsterdam was the third-best internationally connected city in Europe, behind only London and Paris.

“When governments shut down aviation in the pandemic, we all saw the terrible impact that it had on people in the Netherlands and its economy. Downsizing Schiphol will permanently destroy jobs that are only now recovering. Moreover, without the possibility to grow at Schiphol, businesses in the Netherlands will need to evaluate their future in an economy that will be moving from global gateway to regional centre,” said Walsh.

IATA observed that Schiphol has been recovering fast since the end of pandemic restrictions. The airport has already had over 280,000 movements this year, putting it on track to reach its existing 500,000 movement limit. The previous Dutch government, recognizing the economic importance of Schiphol’s hub connections, set out a pathway for Schiphol to grow to 540,000 movements. The sudden announcement of a cut to 440,000 movements thus constitutes a 20 per cent cut to the potential connectivity of the airport.

In sustainable aviation, the industry has committed to reaching net-zero CO2 by 2050. Delivering this tough goal will require huge investment in sustainable aviation fuels (SAF) and cleaner, quieter aircraft. KLM’s commitment to SAF, for example, directly encourages suppliers to increase production. But these investments can only be maximised if carriers are operating in a stable regulatory business environment. Overnight changes to the rules of the game by governments are counterproductive to investment in a more sustainable industry, nor do they create any environmental gain when passengers keen to fly will travel to alternative airports to do so.

“After two years of restrictions, the world is getting moving again. Schiphol has been struggling to cope with demand, which shows how important the airport is, not just to Dutch travellers, but as a strategic hub for the Netherlands. This crazy decision to cut the airport off at its knees will achieve none of the stated environmental aims, but it will cause irreparable harm to jobs and prosperity. The government should reverse course and set out a meaningful pathway for the sustainable growth of aviation in the Netherlands, focused on delivering sustainable aviation fuels and helping the industry meet its commitment to achieving net-zero CO2 by 2050,” said Walsh.

Meanwhile, Heathrow Airport has apologised to passengers caught up in recent travel chaos but warned that more flights could be cancelled, BBC News has reported.

The UK’s largest airport asked airlines to remove 61 flights from Monday’s schedules, as it seeks to cope with soaring demand and staff shortages.

Heathrow’s boss Mr. John Holland-Kaye said the airport would request, “further action if necessary”.

Tens of thousands of UK passengers have been affected by travel disruption.

Airports and airlines have struggled to recruit staff after shedding jobs during Covid-19 lockdowns as holiday demand has returned. The UK is about to enter the key summer holiday season as schools begin to break up.

The government and the aviation regulator wrote to carriers last month telling them to ensure their summer timetables were “deliverable”.

Last week, British Airways said it was cutting 10, 300 more short-haul flights between August and the end of October. The announcement, affecting Heathrow, Gatwick and City airports, means nearly 30,000 flights will have been removed from BA’s schedule between April and October this year.

Heathrow apologised to passengers affected by “long queue times, delays for passengers with reduced mobility, bags not travelling with passengers or arriving late”, at times in recent weeks.

But it insisted most passengers had a good level of service, despite resourcing challenges at the airport, airlines, ground handlers and government agencies.

Holland-Kaye further said: “I am very proud of the way that our team is rising to the challenge of growth, and giving excellent service to the vast majority of passengers.

“However, we have already seen times recently when demand exceeds the capacity of the airport, airlines and ground handlers.

“We will review the schedule changes that airlines have submitted in response to the government’s requirement to minimise disruption for passengers this summer and will ask them to take further action if necessary.”

Heathrow said it had asked airlines to remove 61 flights from Monday’s schedules because more passengers are expected in Terminals 3 and 5 than the airport can currently serve.

Previous “schedule interventions” happened following problems with a baggage system, and because more passengers were expected than security staffing could cope with.

Heathrow said nearly six million passengers used the airport in June.

Justice Oluwatoyin Taiwo of the Ikeja Domestic Violence and Sexual Offences Court has sentenced Nollywood actor and comedian, Olanrewaju James, A.K.A Baba Ijesha to 16 years imprisonment over sexual assault.

Justice Taiwo gave the judgment on Thursday adding that the jail term will run concurrently.
The actor was convicted of sexually assaulting the 14-year-old daughter of his colleague, actress, and comedienne, Damilola Adekoya with the stage name Princess.

While the majority of residents in Botswana’s Okavango Delta are celebrating the return of the annual floods, the Okavango Kopano Mokoro Community Trust’s (OKMCT) escort guides are worried that poaching will increase.

At an event organised by the Trust in June to welcome the annual floods at Boro village, OKMCT senior escort guide, Monopane Namanga said they appreciate the return of the floods, as it will benefit most people in the area and will resuscitate the struggling tourism sector.

He however expressed concern that whenever the flood waters arrive, poaching incidents go up. Inevitably, this puts community escort guides whose mandate is to take care of wildlife in the delta, on high alert.

Namanga said the return of water means that their workload will increase as there will be more movements of people getting into the delta using their boats.
He added that most of them are tour operators with their guests exploring the beauty of the delta.
”Others who enter into the delta are community members living within some settlements in the delta, either going to harvest tswii (a traditional potato-like vegetable that grows in rivers) and reeds, or fishing,” he added.

However, he said there is an arrangement for anyone who enters the delta to register at the Boro mokoro (canoe) station.
This enables monitoring of movements in the delta and “it is our responsibility as escort guides to strictly monitor this,” he emphasised.

He advised that tour operators transporting tourists must pay gate fees to the Trust office in Maun and show proof of payment before they are allowed inside the delta.
Community members going to harvest grass or tswii must also have a permit from the Department of Forestry before they can enter the delta.

”The same applies to those who go inside for fishing, they also have to present fishing licences,” he noted.
He said that it has become a common practice for people to enter the delta posing as fishermen when in fact they are poachers that have come to kill small game such as impala and kudu for meat consumption.
Namanga noted that when water levels are high, law enforcement agencies relax their patrols as they cannot go deep inside the delta.

Poachers then take advantage of this by using dugout canoes and once they enter the delta, it is not easy to trace them.
Since the anti-poaching unit struggles to track poachers in these cases, they depend on help from OKMCT as it is easy for escort guides to travel deep into the delta.

Namanga explained that they inform the Botswana Defence Force (BDF) camp inside the delta whenever they notice suspicious movements by people that have entered the delta, to assist them by arresting poachers.
The senior escort guide further stated that they have a good working relationship with BDF officers who patrol the delta.

He dismissed media reports suggesting that the sour relationship between the community escort guides and the BDF has increased cases of poaching in the delta.
”Since I have been a community escort guide, we have been working well with the BDF as they are the ones doing patrols in the delta-like us,” he noted.

Efforts to get a comment from the Department of Wildlife and National Parks office in Maun on how they are prepared to deal with poaching as water returns were futile at press time as they did not respond to our questions.

The announcement by the Speaker at the sitting of 12 July 2022 Honorable Members,
Since our last meeting in this Chamber of Parliament in plenary, a lot has been said and written on social media about the role of this current Parliament and more especially about this particular sitting and what is perceived by many to be its aim and objective today; about my role in it as Speaker; and equally importantly about the Constitutional Instruments and the Public Elections Bill 2022 that are presently before us for consideration.

Most of what I have read and heard on social media seemed to me to have stemmed from a mountain of mischaracterization, misunderstanding, and misinformation of monumental proportions about the work of this Parliament. It is a big shame that as a nation that has earned self-rule as an Independent Sovereign Nation for over 61 years, and had once been the pride of West Africa as the “Athens of Education” there are still in our midst adult men and women who deliberately and maliciously set out through political propaganda to manipulate and deceive the masses of our people. This is most lamentable, to say the least.

So let me take this opportunity to make it abundantly clear that contrary to the hype given to the general public, the Public Elections Bill of 2022 currently before this Parliament does not introduce any new proportional representation into our law. The District Block Representation System, a form of PR, which is mentioned in the Bill, was introduced into our laws as far back as 2001 by way of a constitutional amendment that was encapsulated in Section 38A. Therefore the debate about the PR system is not going to happen in this Parliament because it is already embedded in the laws of Sierra Leone, in the Constitution of Sierra Leone, the highest law of our land.

Instead what the Public Elections Bill before this Parliament seeks to introduce is the empowerment of women to give them a justifiable say in the Parliamentary affairs of this country by raising the percentage of their representation to a minimum of thirty percent. The Bill also seeks to strengthen the independence of the Electoral Commission by making it extremely difficult to remove the Commissioners from office. The Bill also seeks to take away the prerogative power of the President to determine the date of elections by fixing a date for such elections and this will now be set in the Constitution in the same way as is done in the United States of America.These are the main issues that should focus our attention.

I propose to explain in greater detail to this House and to the general public the true nature and character of the Instruments that are currently before this Parliament if only to enhance their better understanding and appreciation of both their content and their implications for the political development, peace and stability of our country. In this regard, I shall also call upon the leadership of all the political parties represented in this Parliament to lend their respective voices in removing the cobwebs of misunderstanding and misinformation that seem to have surrounded the Bills before this House. To join me in this assignment will be a hallmark of great leadership and a fitting performance of our collective duty to maintain peace and stability in this country and to promote, preserve and protect the wellbeing and prosperity of all who dwell in it. This is a primordial duty that we all owe to the people of this country as Members of Parliament and to this veritable institution of Parliament.

I shall most certainly perform mine as and when necessary. For now, I shall just simply say here clearly and loudly, and with all the authority at my command as Speaker of this Parliament, and mindful also of the need to accelerate momentum in our consideration of the important Bills currently before this Parliament, that our unsuspecting compatriots within this country and around the world have been hugely and thoroughly misinformed, misguided and misdirected. But, as promised, I shall elaborate on this further when we get to that point.
Also, at this crucial juncture, we should address what in my opinion constitutes the foundation upon which so much that is contained in the Public Elections Bill of 2022 is grounded. And it is imperative that first and foremost we construct the foundation of the metaphoric building if the essence of the new electoral edifice – the Public Elections Bill of 2022- is to be understood and accepted by all and sundry.
This is precisely the manner in which the Order Paper for today’s sitting has been crafted.
Suffice it, however, that I should make mention here of the egregious harm that has been committed by a certain individual who decided unilaterally and without prior authorization from me to upload my personal telephone number on social media. This singular act of his has caused me great harm. And he did not just stop there. He went on to exhort Sierra Leoneans both at home and abroad to send messages to my phone about the perceptions they hold about the Public Elections Bill and what they believe it is purporting to introduce into our body politic. To say the very least, these acts constitute as much intimidation and harassment as they were unwarranted and unnecessary and in effect an invitation to anarchy under the guise of respectable journalism.

Frankly, in my considered opinion, it was a most intolerable and unworthy display of reckless journalism. And I want to take this opportunity to condemn it completely and unreservedly so that the individual concerned would be better advised in the future to try to think twice before indulging in any more despicable and uncanny activities of this sort from the comfortable environment of his overseas habitat. I hope a word for the wise is sufficient.

The presidential candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu, will, on Thursday, present former Governor of Borno State, Senator Kashim Shettima, as his substantive running mate to the leadership of the party.

Shettima will be officially unveiled by 1.00 pm at the APC secretariat in Abuja.
This was contained in a statement issued on Wednesday night by the spokesman for the Bola Tinubu Campaign Organisation, Bayo Onanuga.

The development is coming three days after Tinubu told newsmen that Shettima was the “chosen one” after his closed-door meeting with President Muhammadu Buhari, at his private residence in Daura, Katsina State.

Tinubu’s declaration occurred less than an hour after the APC placeholder, Ibrahim Masari, officially stepped down as vice presidential nominee.
His decision was said to have infuriated the North-West stakeholders, including the governors, who felt the national leader of the party should have, at least, informed them before making the premature announcement.

Barely 24 hours after the unveiling of Shettima, the ruling party received a barrage of criticisms from concerned Nigerians, religious leaders, opposition parties, and the Christian Association of Nigeria.
The series of backlash had fuelled reports that Tinubu and the leadership of the APC may consider dropping Shettima from the race and picking a Northern Christian with two days left to the deadline of the Independent National Electoral Commission.

However, the camp of the former Lagos State governor had denied the report, saying the negative review being peddled by a select few was not enough to force them to abandon their vice presidential candidate.

Speaking with newsmen, the spokesman for the Bola Tinubu Campaign Organisation stated that Tinubu would not be cowed into taking such an unpopular decision.
“That is not possible. There is nothing like that going on in our camp. We have seen this move before; all these campaigns to pitch us against fellow Nigerians. It happened in 1993 and the result was clear. There was pressure from several quarters for (MKO) Abiola to drop (Babagana) Kingibe because of his Muslim background.

“I pray people will come back to their senses to discover that what they should be looking at is not a religion but the competence of the candidate to deliver and take the country to a greater height. They will soon realize that. As I said earlier, there is no likelihood that our presidential candidate will drop Shettima. He has selected him and Shettima will remain. He is a cool candidate. Either of them can be a president,” he said.

Pretoria authorities have arrested two individuals in connection with one of the two shootings that plunged South Africa into mourning over the weekend.

A total of 19 people died after unknown assailants opened fire on Saturday night, apparently at random, on the patrons of two bars, one in Soweto, a suburb of Johannesburg (15 dead), the other in Pietermaritzburg, in Zulu country, in the east (4 dead).

In a statement announcing the two arrests without further details, the Ministry of Home Affairs said it was a “first step towards holding to account all those who organized the country’s deadliest weekend”.
A spokeswoman for the ministry, Lirandzu Themba, told AFP that the police believe the two people arrested are “linked” to the Pietermaritzburg killing, which was reportedly carried out by two men.
The Soweto shooting was committed by “several gunmen” armed with AK-47 assault rifles, according to the preliminary investigation.

Shootings are common in South Africa, one of the world’s most violent countries, fuelled by gang violence and alcohol, but the indiscriminate nature of the two-weekend killings is baffling investigators.
The violent deaths are “unacceptable and disturbing” and “we cannot allow violent criminals to terrorise us in this way,” South African President, Cyril Ramaphosa said in a statement Sunday.

The R. Kelly case is beginning to take a small turn, although this does not imply that the singer can get out of jail, after being sentenced to 30 years in prison for being convicted of sex trafficking.
According to a letter revealed by Page Six, Robert Kelly had a good relationship with one of his alleged victims and they were even going to get married in 2022.

She says she is not a victim
The name of the victim is Joycelyn Savage, a 26-year-old woman who is declaring herself as not a victim
She wrote a letter which Page Six published “My name is Joycelyn Savage, and I’m Robert Kelly’s fiancé. I’m writing this letter in support of Robert in advance of his sentencing, so I can explain to the court that I’m not the victim that the government has portrayed me to be.”
Joycelyn Savage is one of the two girlfriends who used to live with R. Kelly and claims that they share a “special connection” and “deep love.”

He is “sweet, gentle and kind”
“Robert is not the monster that the government has described him to be,” she continued. “The Robert I know is very sweet, gentle, and kind. At the end of the day, he has always made sure that I’m taken care of, and any other women he was with as well.”

Incredible as it may seem, the 55-year-old rapper and actor has someone to defend him and is seeking a less severe sentence, however it does not look good for the “I Believe I Can Fly” singer
In March 2019, Joycelyn Savage who was born in Atlanta and met R. Kelly at the age of 19, claimed that her parents created the allegations against the Grammy winner as retaliation for “scamming and money” purposes because they “disagreed” with a financial arrangement they had.