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It is no longer news that Chelsea Football Club of England have re-signed Romelu Lukaku from Inter Milan Football Club of Italy.

Though he arrived the club too late to be involved in Chelsea's first premiership game against Crystal Palace (which they won 3-0) due to current COVID-19 protocols, Chelsea's head coach Thomas Tuchel is confident that Lukaku will be able to make his second Blues debut in their match against Arsenal on Sunday August 22, 2021.

'We expect Romelu to finish quarantine in time to be able to join team training on Tuesday, because Monday is our day off. So we will try to prepare him to play against Arsenal and hopefully he can be on the pitch', he spoke on Chelsea's official website.

'With the addition of Romelu, we get the number-one striker and we want to have him on the pitch. This is very clear. If you do this kind of transfer, we are absolutely sure we want to have him on the pitch, but I think he will lift the pressure off the shoulders of the young guys, from Kai, Timo and Christian, because Romelu is the kind of personality who loves responsibility.

'I think we have now the chance to play with two strikers like they did at Inter with him, or to continue with three strikers. We will see now how this works out and we will find a solution for the players around him', he concluded.

It is now left to see the responsibility or responsibilities that Tuchel will assign to Lukaku as he (Lukaku) warms up to take the bull by the horn as Chelsea's top striker.

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With Manchester City sitting comfortably at the top of the English Premier League table with 74 points followed by Manchester United (60 points) and Leicester City (56 points), it seems the fourth position is the only Champions League spot in contention.



This conviction of mine stems from the facts that the three teams look unflinching in securing maximum points in their remaining games, and also that two of them have just 8 games to go while one (Manchester City) has just 7 to go.



Now, fighting for the fourth spot are West Ham (52 points), Chelsea (51 points), Tottenham (49 points), Liverpool (49 points) and Everton (47 points). Even though with the lowest point, Everton have an advantage of 9 games to go over the others who each has 8 games to go.



WEST HAM will play Leicester City (HOME), Newcastle (AWAY), Chelsea (HOME), Burnley (AWAY), Everton (HOME), Brighton (AWAY), West Brom (AWAY) and Southampton (HOME). That's a total of 4 home games and 4 away games.



CHELSEA will play Crystal Palace (AWAY), Brighton (HOME), West Ham (AWAY), Fulham (HOME), Manchester City (AWAY), Arsenal (HOME), Leicester City (HOME) and Aston Villa (AWAY). That's a total of 4 home games and 4 away games.



TOTTENHAM will play Manchester United (HOME), Everton (AWAY), Southampton (HOME), Sheffield United (HOME), Leeds United (AWAY), Wolves (HOME), Aston Villa (HOME) and Leicester City (AWAY). That's a total of 5 home games and 3 away games.



LIVERPOOL will play Aston Villa (HOME), Leeds United (AWAY), Newcastle (HOME), Manchester United (AWAY), Southampton (HOME), West Brom (AWAY), Burnley (AWAY) and Crystal Palace (HOME). That's a total of 4 home games and 4 away games.



EVERTON will play Aston Villa (AWAY), Brighton (AWAY), Tottenham (HOME), Arsenal (AWAY), Aston Villa (HOME), West Ham (AWAY), Sheffield United (HOME), Wolves (HOME) and Manchester City (AWAY). That's a total of 4 home games and 5 away games.



It is however noteworthy that Chelsea stand a chance to qualify automatically for the UEFA Champions League next season if they win the ongoing one. Same goes for Arsenal if they win the ongoing Europa League.



So, with the above statistics, which team do you think stands the best chance to qualify for the UEFA Champions League next season? Go ahead and comment, like and share.

Honestly speaking, I never knew a time would come in history when a president of the United States of America (USA) would behave exactly like a typical power-hungry African president.

In his quest to unravel his perceived electoral fraud, President Donald John Trump made the USA a laughing stock before several nations which hitherto had seen the USA as the epitome of leadership and democracy.

The apex of it all was the invasion of the US Capitol on January 6, 2021 by a mob of Trump's supporters, sending lawmakers, who were in the process of certifying Joe Biden's election victory, running for cover.

President Trump even went ahead to post a video of his address to the mob on Facebook, where he told them, ''I love you'' before asking them to go home. This act of his led the suspension of his Facebook account by the Facebook CEO, Mark Zuckerberg, on January 7, 2021 for at least two weeks. What a shame!

While I do not see anything wrong with his disagreement with the election results, I think he should have honourably succumbed to defeat after exhausting all legal means. I also think he should have repeatedly called his supporters to order for the sake of the respect and honour of the office he occupied, the people he served, and the country he represented.

Before now, the refusal to leave office had been most synonymous with African leaders. The cases of Presidents Yahya Jammeh of Gambia, Robert Mugabe of Zimbabwe, Yoweri Museveni of Uganda, Joseph Kabila of the Democratic Republic of Congo, and Pierre Nkurunziza of Burundi, quickly come to mind.

However, it is noteworthy that there were also some honourable African Presidents who relinquished power when it was legally timely for them to. The likes of Presidents Goodluck Jonathan of Nigeria and Ian Khama of Botswana quickly come to mind in this regard.

This goes to show that there's no perfect leadership, politics or democracy in the world. If the USA, with its centuries of democracy, could experience the current display of lawlessness, then no continent, region or country should be tainted as wayward, backward or corrupt anymore.

However, the attitude of holding onto power illegally by world leaders is highly condemnable, and must never be supported either sentimentally or otherwise.

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The Nigerian Defence Headquarters' Director of Information, Major General John Enenche has blamed the continued existence of terrorism, banditry and insurgency in the northeastern part of Nigeria on the inability of the locals to give valuable information to the Nigerian military.

This, he said on a Radio Nigeria network programme, Politics Nationwide, on Tuesday January 5, 2021.

He maintained that the prompt rescue of about 344 kidnapped schoolboys of Government Science Secondary School, Kankara, Katsina State, Nigeria, on December 2020, was as a result of valuable information the military received from the locals and converted into intelligence for a successful operation.

He emphasized that no ransom was paid for the boys' release, though declining to reveal what happened to their captors for 'security reasons'.

However, he sadly stressed that the military did not enjoy such cooperation in the northeast, and that the indifference of the locals there helps the advancement of terrorism, banditry, and insurgency there.

He went further to debunk the rumours that the terrorists have more sophisticated weapons than the military and that the service chiefs were clueless, maintaining that with prompt, adequate and regular relevant information from the locals, the military would always be proactive in all their operations.

For the records, the northeastern states of Nigeria include Adamawa, Bauchi, Borno, Gombe, Taraba, and Yobe States, while the northwestern states include Kaduna, Katsina, Kano, Kebbi, Sokoto, Jigawa, and Zamfara States.

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Indeed, there are salient facts about the New Year that often go unnoticed year after year, though very necessary.

Do you know that the world consists of 38 time zones? This means that the day breaks 38 times in different parts of the world.

Furthermore, this implies that we celebrate the New Year 38 times every year within 26 hours, starting from 10:00 hours GMT on December 31 to 12:00 hours GMT on January 1.

The first countries to celebrate the New Year on 10:00 hours GMT (11a.m Nigerian Time) on December 31 are the Pacific Island countries of Tonga, Samoa and Kiribati (Christmas Island).

Nigeria celebrates her New Year by 23:00 hours GMT on December 31 with other countries on the 23rd Time Zone (GMT+01:00).

The last countries to celebrate the New Year are the United States minor outlying island nations of Baker and Howland by 12:00 hours GMT on January 1 (1p.m Nigerian Time).

Therefore, when congratulating one another for making it to the New Year in Nigeria for example, don't forget that more than a hundred countries on 22 Time Zones had already entered the New Year.

For the records, the 38 World Time Zones include GMT/UTC+14:00, +13:45, +13:00, +12:00, +11:00, +10:30, +10:00, +09:30, +09:00, +08:45, +08:00, +07:00, +06:30, +06:00, +05:45, +05:30, +05:00, +04:30, +04:00, +03:30, +03:00, +02:00, +01:00, +00:00, -01:00, -02:00, -03:00, -03:30, -04:00, -05:00, -06:00, -07:00, -08:00, -09:00, -09:30, -10:00, -11:00 and -12:00.

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Andrea Pirlo, the coach of the Italian Serie A football club Juventus, had blamed his team's 3-0 home loss to Fiorentina on Tuesday December 22 2020, on wrong attitude of his players.

This was Juventus' first league defeat of the season with 24 points, seven points behind Serie A leader AC Milan, and presently occupying the fourth position on the table.

Juventus had to play most of the match at a numerical disadvantage after former Fiorentina winger Juan Cuadrado was sent off in the 18th minute.

Coach Andrea Pirlo said, ''We came on with the wrong attitude, and when you go onto the field like this, you get into these bad situations. Then we were down to 10 men, and at that point, it became difficult to recover.

''Occasionally, it happens that you are not 100 percent, but in the second half, we came out with the right mentality. It could have gone better. Now we have to start again with desire, thinking about the mistakes we made, and carrying our project forward''.

Cristiano Ronaldo had a headed goal disallowed for offside. It was indeed a bad day for him and his teammates as they struggled to score to no avail.

As it stands, AC Milan is the only remaining unbeaten team in Serie A.

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The UEFA Champions League round of 16 is finally set! First leg matches will commence on February 17, 2021.



After the group stage of the Champions League tournament comprising 32 teams, 16 teams qualified to progress to the round of 16, while 8 teams were demoted to the Europa League round of 32. The remaining 8 were simply disqualified from both tournaments as they finished fourth on the table.



In drawing teams for the round of 16, the 8 group winners face the 8 runners-up. However, teams cannot face another side from their own country or their own group.



The unseeded teams (group runners-up) are listed first, and will host the first leg of the home-and-away ties.



Here is the full draw for the first leg ties:



Borussia Monchengladbach VS Manchester City



Lazio VS Bayern Munich



Athletico Madrid VS Chelsea



RB Leipzig VS Liverpool



FC Porto VS Juventus



Sevilla VS Borussia Dortmund



Barcelona VS PSG



Atalanta VS Real Madrid



Undoubtedly, all the above are tough pairings and matches to watch out for. Nevertheless, the contests must give birth to eight successful teams that will progress to the quarter-finals at the end of the day.



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The death of the Argentine football legend, Diego Armando Maradona on November 25 2020, at the age of 60, in Tigre, Buenos Aires, Argentina, has sent shockwaves through the football world.

The World Cup winner was admitted to La Plata clinic in Argentina on November 2, after complaining of fatigue and low spirits, a condition his representatives said was not serious.

However, he underwent surgery to remove a blood clot in his brain, and the procedure was successful.

Subsequently, he was released from hospital on November 12 to recover at home as an outpatient, with treatment and supervision from doctors.

Sadly, tragedy struck while he was recuperating, and a report came that he died of a fatal heart attack.

An autopsy was carried out at the morgue of the San Fernando Hospital, and it was confirmed that his death was 'a result of natural causes' with emphasis that no 'foul play' was discovered.

Maradona had a successful active football career, during which he played for Boca Juniors, Barcelona and Napoli, and won over 50 awards for both clubs and country.

He was renowned for his dribbling ability, vision, close ball control, passing and creativity, and was considered one of the most skillful players in football.

The apex of his career was in 1986, when he played a key role as a captain and playmaker for Argentina in their victory in the FIFA World Cup tournament that year. He also captained Argentina to their 1990 and 1994 World Cup campaigns.

He retired from active football in 1997, and went into coaching. Until his death, he was the head coach of Gimnasia de La Plata, a football club in Argentina.

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Honestly, I don't know the truth. Can you please let me in?

On Monday, November 23 2020, the Federal Government of Nigeria (FGN), through its Minister of Information, wrote a letter to the Cable News Network (CNN), emphatically stating its disagreement with the CNN's November 18 video report on the October 20 #EndSARS Lekki Toll Gate shootings by the Nigerian Army in Lagos, Nigeria.

According to the FGN, the CNN's report 'did not live up to the most basic of the core principles of journalism, which are Balance and Fairness.'

Talking about balance, the FGN maintained that the CNN should have sought its position on the issue before publication.

Talking about fairness, the FGN believed that the CNN 'relied heavily on unverified footages it harvested from the social media' hence, it must have been misled into spurious publication of the Lekki incident.

However, the CNN had responded to the verbal criticism of its report by the FGN through its spokesman who said, "Our reporting was carefully and meticulously researched, and we stand by it".

There will surely be more to this tussle in the coming days. I believe that such disagreement is necessary in order to unravel the entire truth about this all-important issue.

There are two contentious points here. While the FGN claimed that the CNN's report was not balanced because it was denied a say, the CNN believed its report was balanced because it made effort to contact the Nigerian Army and the Lagos State Government (who it believed to be the key players in the incident) to no avail.

Second, while the FGN maintained that its soldiers killed nobody as they only shot in the air on that fateful day, the CNN reported that the Nigerian soldiers shot at unarmed protesters, leading to many deaths.

There is no doubt that the truth about what actually happened on that day will be unravelled in no distant time.

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A scammer is someone who obtains money or property from people by fraudulent or deceitful methods.

Every frequent internet or social media user will agree with me that there are scammers all over there. This is not only an internet or social media case. The truth is that there are scammers everywhere. Hence, the need for all to be very vigilant, suspicious and discreet.

Watch out for the following five common methods of scammers nowadays that I have carefully discovered:


1. They promise quick and huge returns on investments

How often have you heard about investment platforms that promise to double or triple your money in 15 minutes? Greedily and unfortunately, gullible people fall for this, and are scammed on daily basis.

The question you should ask yourself is: "How much can the supposed investment company or platform make on my money in 15 minutes that will be enough to triple my money and also have its share? What sort of business can that be?"

To boost your trust in them, they often move to authenticate their deals with fake bank alert screenshots. Have you ever carefully studied their different alert screenshots of a particular bank? If you have, you must have noticed a lot of irregularities.

The truth is that no one works for nothing. So, when you're thinking about your gain, also think about that of your business partner. Your inability to reason deeply will only make you an easy prey to a scammer.

2. They use personal phone numbers for their transactions

Isn't it ridiculous that you engage in a business transaction with a company, and all you have are personal phone numbers of individuals? There's no formal invitation to a well-established company to meet, at least, a constituted department of the company, yet you go ahead with such transaction! Honestly, this is funny and unbelievable, yet it happens.

This is a common method used by scammers. Most of their transactions are done through calls and text messages with personal phone numbers. So, be suspicious once this is the case.

3. They promise free gifts

Not long ago, someone chatted me up on MiChat with display picture of a mature woman. She claimed to be a single mother of one, chatting from Birmingham in the United Kingdom. She wrote extensively about her love for honesty and honest people and I simply played along with her. Next, she proposed a video chat on iChat and asked if I had an Apple laptop. When I said no, she quickly promised to send me one that next day.

The questions that flooded my mind were: "How can a woman suddenly fall in love with me to the extent of sending me an Apple laptop after a maiden chat? Couldn't she have simply asked for a video chat through several other Android applications or platforms? How could she even transport it to my country when airlines are on lockdown?

The next day came and she told me she had sent, not only the Apple laptop, but also an iPhone 7 mobile phone and 900 pounds! She matched it all with clear photoshots of the items. Then, instead of giving me the name and address of the cargo company handling the transportation, she proceeded to give me a 'customer care' number and asked me to call for further directions. Just then, my suspicions and doubts were substantiated.

It is quite possible that the person I chatted with was the owner of the so-called customer care number, because when I asked for 'her' phone number, 'she' simply declined.

So, when someone easily promises you free gifts, please be suspicious, for it's likely you are about to be scammed.

4. They post photographs of suffering, sick or dying persons

How often have you seen posts on social media with pictures of suffering, sick or dying persons, where the author seeks for your sympathy, prayers and financial donations? While some might be genuine, it is proven that this is now a common method scammers use against their victims.

The account numbers in such posts often have nothing to do with any suffering, sick or dying person anywhere, rather are that of the the authors, who simply enrich themselves through such dubious and selfish means.


5. They use pornography to gain attention

How often have you seen social media profiles with nude and semi-nude display pictures (often women)? This is simply a means, by scammers, of arousing the curiosity of their victims (especially the men).

Once the supposed victim's curiosity is aroused and sustained, the scammer quickly launches his money-making arsenal, and defrauds the person of money or property or both. So, beware of of this!

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Karex81:
Vast what, when they haven't sold a single product in their home country. It's because Africa is a dumping ground that's why they are still in existence. They can't launch such mediocre product in Europe nor america, because they have high standard .

Before I give you verifiable and convincing statistics, may I have yours please. I don't believe in marketplace chats.

drjprince:
[s][/s] company's property for a phone I purchased, are you forgetting andriod is an open source project while are you sounding like I asked for a bad thing that can't be given out due to confidentiality, what I asked for is for the betterment of users experience..
Just say what you want am not buying data bundle for you

Mr. Canceller, if I were you, I'll comment less because of your accidental discharge of grammatical blunder. I will advise you to learn to be more mature in your discourses. Infinix remains one of the best phones in the market today, whether you like it or not! Its vast usage confirms that.

Agugbadin:
Infinix is the worst phone brand ever sold In Nigeria

Lie from the pit of hell! I use Infinix Hot 8, and it's been serving my needs beautifully. So, enough of all these careless and haphazard comments. Infinix remains my best brand, as long as phone is concerned! I'm very frank about it.

May God have mercy on her

If this pastor truly said this, then he is very myopic! It's very unfortunate how a 'man of G(g)od' can reason! From his comfort zone, he speaks, disregarding other people's plight. May God have mercy on him!