₦airaland Forum

WWE star Roman Reigns has announced in a shocking statement Monday night that his real-life battle with leukemia will force him to step away from the ring effective immediately.

The 33-year-old Reigns, real name is Joe Anoa’i, opened Monday’s episode of Raw with the reveal that was anything but a storyline or predetermined moment.

WWE’s universal champion said he was originally diagnosed back in 2008 at age 22. Though he quickly went into remission, he has been fighting the disease since.

Roman Reigns apologized to the Providence, Rhode Island, crowd for not being the workhorse and fighting champion his character aimed to be. He also announced he will relinquish the title effective immediately.

“That’s all lies and it’s a lie because the reality is my name is Joe and I’ve been living with leukemia for 11 years and unfortunately it’s back,” Anoa’i said.

“Because the leukemia is back, I can’t fulfill my role. I can’t be that fighting champion and I’m going to have to relinquish the universal championship. I’m not going to lie, I’ll take every prayer you can send my way but I’m not looking for sympathy, I’m not looking for you to feel bad for me because I have faith.”

“When I was 22 years old I was diagnosed with this. And very quickly I was able to put it in remission.

“But I’m not going to lie, that was the hardest time of my life. I didn’t have a job, I didn’t have any money, I didn’t have a home and I had a baby on the way and football was done with me.

“But do you want to know who gave me a chance – the team that gave me a chance was the WWE.

“And when I finally made it to the main roster, I was on the road and they put me in front of you, the WWE Universe, and to be honest you all have made my dreams come true.

The United States of America (USA) has said that it has no preferred candidate in the forthcoming general elections in Nigeria in February 2019.

Mr Phillip Franz, a political officer in the US embassy in Nigeria, stated this during a visit to Katsina State Government House on Wednesday in Katsina.

The presidential election that will hold first, is seen as a two-horse race between incumbent Muhammadu Buhari of the All Progressives Congress and Alhaji Atiku Abubakar of the opposition Peoples Democratic Party.

Franz said that the USA is interested in the electoral processes that would ensure credible elections.

“We want to emphasise that the US has no candidate in this election. Our candidate is the process. We very much respect the sovereignty of the country,” he said

He gave an assurance on the support of the USA to Nigeria in conducting free, fair and transparent elections in 2019.

“We will support peaceful electoral process and we stand to provide whatever assistance in order to see free, fair transparent and credible election in Nigeria in 2019,” he said.

A Federal High Court sitting in Asaba, Delta State, has restrained the National Working Committee (NWC), of the All Progressives Congress (APC), from submitting the list of all party candidates for the 2019 general elections from Delta State to the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC).
The sitting judge, Justice Toyin Adegoke, in a ruling, ordered the National Chairman of APC, Adams Oshiomhole who was joined in the suit as the 2nd respondent with APC as 1st respondent, Independent National Electoral Commission and Prophet Jones Erue as the 3rd and 4th respondents respectively and the plaintiff to maintain the status quo.

The judge also ordered them to halt the submission of any APC list of candidates from Delta State from the two factions to INEC until the substantive suit filled is heard.

TribuneOnline reports that the Chief Cyril Ogodo-led State Working Committee (SWC) in Delta State and others had instituted an interlocutory injunction restraining APC and Oshiomhole from submitting the list of candidates from the Prophet Jones Erue-faction to INEC.

Since pre-election matters require accelerated hearings, Justice Adegoke averred that “this matter shall be given an accelerated hearing owing to the fact that it is a pre-election matter. All defendants are to take note of the tendencies of this suit.

“Parties shall maintain status quo as at today, the 17th day of October 2018. That is the order of this court,” Adegoke ruled.

Counsel to the Applicants, Barr O. J. Oghenejakpor said that “the implication is that, as at today, no list of candidates has been submitted to INEC and none will be submitted until we hear this case.

“Technically, the court has granted an injunction restraining any person to nominate any candidate from Delta State for the 2019 election.

“The issue will have to await the substantive trial which is now fixed for 1st and 2nd November 2018. Court has also granted us an accelerated hearing so that the facts can be put to rest once and for all.

“It’s a healing process and I think if the National Executives could take the opportunity of this process, this is what will bring the party together in Delta State.”

Meanwhile, Counsel to the 1st and 2nd respondents, Barr George Onaho, who challenged the jurisdiction of the court, said the court has done the needful and “in the view of the court, our objection challenging the jurisdiction of the court has to wait and be adopted together with our final written address after the substantive suit must have been heard.

“So that necessitated the adjournment that was taken. The court ordered an accelerated hearing and gave two days to call in witnesses and deal with the case.

SOME Police trainees at the Nigeria Police Training School, Ilorin, Kwara State have allegedly beaten up the chairman of the Nigerian Bar Association, NBA Ilorin branch, Mohammed Akande and one other at the premises of the school.

It was also gathered that the other lawyer, Luqman Olanrewaju, was stripped of his clothes leaving him only with his underwears before the police trainees detained him in the cell

The incident reportedly occurred when the lawyer was going to render a legal service to his client said to be a tyre seller, who was held up at the traffic section of the state police command.

The traffic section, it was gathered, shares premises with the training school and the “A” Division of the command.

The lawyer was said to be passing through a spot at the school on his way to the traffic section when he was accosted by the police trainees, who were said to be about 20 in number.

The trainees reportedly accused him of passing through the spot reserved only for certain government functionaries but he was reported to have said that he did that unintentionally, adding that he’s a lawyer going to meet with his client at the traffic section.

Further questioning by the trainees was said to have led to altercations between the two sides, while the trainees reportedly beat up the lawyer and clamped him into detention.

The NBA chairman, who was alerted of the development, visited the school to secure the release of his colleague member, allegedly ended up suffering the same fate in the hands of the trainees.

“About 20 of them later gathered, and they started calling me a fake lawyer to which I said I’m not. They asked me to produce my identity card, and I told them that I’m a private lawyer that they should find out that lawyers don’t always carry identity cards around.

“At this point, they pounced on me slapping and kicking me, while some used the stick gun in their hands to beat me severely. At a point, they removed my shirt and trouser leaving me with my boxer and singlet and threw me up in the air to fall on the ground. They later carry me and dumped me in their cell

“There is one particular woman, Adeyemi Mulikat, maybe one of their teachers who supervised my beating, and said if luck is against me and I stay in the cell till the following morning, she would ensure that I’m killed there,” he said.

The lawyer, however, said that it was his client who was waiting for him in the traffic section that got attracted to the huge crowd at the gate and saw the tragedy that had befallen him who called other lawyers, with the NBA Ilorin chairman who all later came to the venue to rescue him.

The NBA chairman who also recounted his experience stated: ” I received a distress call from one of our colleagues that a member is in crisis at the A division police station, at challenge area and we all went there. It was when we got there that we knew that the incident occurred at the police training school section, and straight we met the headmaster who invited us to his office.

“He told us that the whole issue is about thoroughfare at the gate, that the lawyer was very rude, and he ordered his men to lock him up, then I asked him to produce the lawyer from their cell.

“My brother, when I saw my colleague I was almost crying. He was in boxer and singlet, so ruffled with scars of beaten all over his body. Not even an armed robber, deserve that kind of inhuman treatment. So, I told them to kill the lawyer having beaten him this much because of thoroughfare incident.

“In the process, altercations ensued between us and l was also beaten by his officers, my necktie was pulled severally and my shirt was roughened. It was in the process that the commandant of the college got wind of the development and invited us all to his office.

“In all fairness to the commandant, when he was told about the incident and saw the lawyer in his condition, he asked all those who carried out the act to be detained immediately and we all left the place.”

Spokesman of the state police command, Ajayi Okasanmi who confirmed the incident said the state police commissioner, Bolshoi Fafowora was already taking action on it.

He stated: “There is a place called sentry around the gate of the school, its only governor, president and ambassador that could stand on that place. I was told people pass through that place and one of them happens to be a lawyer. He was caught, and you know, everybody like proving a point, the lawyer, I learnt was beaten.

“The school is not under the command but the DIG. But the CP who is the most senior officer here is meeting with the lawyers and those who are concerned and I’m assuring you that anyone caught on the right side of the law would be appropriately sanctioned.”