FULHAM STRIKER KOSTAS MITROGLOU HAS BEEN DROPPED AGAINTS CHELSEA

It seem chelsea is now having advantage over fulham in today's derby as Fulham new boss (Felix Magath) dropped £12million striker Kostas Mitroglou for Saturday's west London derby against Chelsea.

Mitroglou made his debut in last weekend's 1-1 Barclays Premier League draw at West Brom, but will not participate when Jose Mourinho's side visit Craven Cottage.

        Fulham coach (Magath) insists the Greece forward, a deadline-day signing bought to fill the void created by Dimitar Berbatov's departure, though is not yet ready for the demands of English football. Kostas is a very dangerous striker, but in this league you have to be fit if you are to be ready to score," Magath said.

"Next weekend (against Cardiff on March 8) I'm convinced that he will be back in the squad."

           Magath is hoping to capitalise on Chelsea's Champions League fatigue when Fulham attempt to climb off the foot of the table by defeating the Premier League leaders.

The Blues were held to 1-1 draw against Galatasaray in Istanbul on Wednesday night and Magath insists they will have been drained by the travel. When a team has played in the Champions League, it is always an advantage," Magath said. We are lucky that Chelsea have had such a long trip to Istanbul to play on Wednesday. It's a good situation for us. I remember the situation - you have to stay at the airport, fly for a few hours and then play the game at night. Players can't sleep so well and are tired and then they have to spend more time at the airport. It bothers the players a lot. It gives us a chance. Chelsea are favourites, everyone knows that, but we'll try to fight and make a fast game.

"If we pressurise Chelsea then we have a good chance to win the game."

        Fernando Amorebieta and Damien Duff are in the Whites' treatment room, but Darren Bent returns after missing the West Brom match for personal reasons.

       Chelsea manager Mourinho will assess the fatigue levels of his squad following their midweek Champions League trip to Istanbul. David Luiz (groin) and John Obi Mikel (calf) are among those being checked, as are midfielder Oscar (ankle) and striker Fernando Torres. Nemanja Matic and Mohamed Salah were cup-tied in Europe so should feature, but midfielder Marco van Ginkel is continuing his rehabilitation from his serious knee injury.

Mourinho has backed the claims of midfielder Frank Lampard that the Barclays Premier League has to do more to help clubs in Europe with fixture schedules.

         The Blues have little recovery time following their midweek Champions League trip to Istanbul, having arrived back in the early hours of Thursday morning, before heading into the west London derby with Fulham at Craven Cottage on Saturday afternoon.

Mourinho's squad trained at Stamford Bridge on Thursday afternoon before the players headed off to their usual pre-match hotel at Chelsea Harbour.

        Clubs who play in the Europa League on Thursday evenings are allowed to push their next domestic matches back to a Sunday kick-off, but there is no such dispensation for Champions League fixtures.

The Portuguese manager, whose side are top of the Premier League, insists Lampard was right to speak out against what he sees as poor planning, with little consideration for fatigue on players.

     "We all prefer to play game after game after game, but we all want to play game after game with conditions to recover, with equal conditions for every team, and no sense that a team has a privilege in the choices, and every team in the same country has the same privilege to be a little bit protected in relation to European matches," said Mourinho, who will assess the fatigue levels of his squad before making a final team selection. It makes the players' job difficult, not my job

         I can play a match every day, it is not a problem for me or the people who make the fixtures. I don't run, they don't run. It's difficult for the players. When a player like Frank Lampard, who has a right to speak and has played an unbelievable number of seasons and matches in this club, and over 100 times for England, and is not the kind of player who is trying to give an opinion all the time, so when a player like him, and a man like him, expresses his feelings about that, this country should listen.

COURT FIXED MARCH 21st FOR SANUSI LAMIDO'S MOTION

         March 21st have been fixed for motion hearing of Impeached CBN Governor (Malam Sanusi Lamido) by Federal High Court in Lagos on Friday fixed  to hear a motion filed by the  seeking enforcement of his fundamental right.

          Lamido had filed the suit through his counsel, Prof. Yemi Osibanjo (SAN), seeking an order restraining the police and officers of the State Security Service (SSS) from arresting, detaining or otherwise harassing him. Joined as first to third respondents in the suit are: The Attorney General of the Federation (AGF), Inspector General of Police (I-G) and the SSS.

         When the case was mentioned on Friday, Justice Ibrahim Buba adjourned it to March 21 for hearing, following an application for adjournment moved by counsel to all the respondents. Counsel to the AGF, Dr Oscar Nliam, holding the brief of Chief Mike Ozekhome (SAN), informed the court that his office had just been briefed on the matter. He told the court that they were yet to receive all the processes filed by the applicant, and therefore prayed the court for a short adjournment to enable him collate all processes. Counsel representing the I-G, Mr Chukwu Agwu, on his part, informed the court that he was only notified last night by his boss from the Force Headquarters that the suit will be coming up in court. He said that the second respondent was yet to receive the processes and also prayed the court for an adjournment to enable him look at the processes when they arrive.

        In the same vein, counsel representing the SSS, Mr Ahmed Musa, also aligned himself with the submissions of his colleagues, adding that an adjournment will be to their favour especially as parties were still within time of filing.

      Counsel representing the applicant, Mr Kola Awodehin (SAN),, did not object to the prayers for adjournment, but noted that the suit bordered on fundamental rights enforcement and ought to be dealt with expeditiously. Justice Buba, however, in a short ruling, adjourned the case to March 21 for hearing.

            The court had on Feb. 21, granted an interim order of injunction, restraining the respondents from arresting, detaining or harassing the applicant, pending the determination of the motion on notice. The interim order was sequel to an affidavit of urgency filed by the applicant on the same date.

BOKO HARAM TENDS TO RUIN JONATHAN'S REGIME

The Islamic terrorist has vow to ruin Jonathan administration with their daily killing. The president Ebele Gudlock Jonathan on Friday said the country was at war with Boko Haram, apparently backing off previous claims that the Islamist rebels were on the run and desperate to destroy this country.

         Jonathan has termed the ongoing military offensive in Boko Haram north-eastern stronghold a success and maintained that normality will be restored to the embattled region by May. Though people have been criticizing President Goodluck Jonathan's administration over its handling of the conflict, both for its inability to stop massive attacks on powerless civilians and for what some have described as mixed and contradictory messages on the severity of the crisis.

         On Friday, president's spokesperson Doyin Okupe told the private Channels television station that the Boko Haram conflict was a "war situation". "We are dealing with a very, very serious enemy," he said. We are engaged in a war that has been internationalized," he added in an apparent reference to Boko Haram's reported but unconfirmed presence in neighboring countries like Cameroon.

        The conflict has killed thousands since 2009 but many argue the plight of civilians in the northeast has worsened since the military began its operation in May. Since then, nearly 300 000 people have been displaced in the region, according to the UN, and more than 1 500 people killed, according to the UN and figures compiled by AFP. "It is very difficult, very costly in terms of lives lost. But we will overcome," Okupe said. "We are in the dying phase of this insurgency."

         The ministry of defense on Thursday said the insurgents were "desperate" to escape Nigeria because of military pressure and would be "degraded towards elimination shortly".With all this, we need to be at alert.

REASON BEHIND THE ASUP STRIKE -ASUP PRESIDENT

     

  The Nigeria Education has become toy between Federal Government and ASUP, based on the fact that student's career are in danger. in an interview with the ASUP President - Kuni Tyessi:

 Polytechnics have been on strike for almost nine months now and it is clear ASUP as a union is agitating for certain things to be done, what really are the issues?

                 Yea, principally, the issues can be summarised in three areas generally. One, the issues go to address the strengthening of the legal and the institutional framework of Nigeria’s polytechnic system. They also go to address the issue of deepening the capacity of academic personnel in Nigerian polytechnics to equip and position them properly so as to be able to meet the objectives of the agenda of training the polytechnic graduates. Thirdly also, is to really restore integrity and dignity to the products from polytechnics.

                    But if you look at them as individual items, we can mention some of them very clearly. For instance, in 2009 we entered an agreement with Nigerian government and that agreement provided in itself that by 2012 it would be re-negotiated and since 2012 we have been asking the government to re-negotiate the agreement it agreed to re-negotiate and up till now they’ve just been a mirage, government has frustrated the process.

              Also, we are looking at the discrimination against polytechnic graduates in public service and generally in the Nigerian labour market and we are saying that, this system has become anachronistic in the global world now that we don’t discriminate against people’s career choices just because of where they went to school. Also, we are asking for proper comprehensive NEEDS assessment of Nigerian polytechnics, this hasn’t been done and we know that it has been done for Nigerian universities and we are asking that government should also do that. We are also asking government to set up a commission to clearly cater for Nigerian polytechnic education just as there is a commission catering for Nigerian university education and another commission catering for colleges of education.

          We are also asking for a comprehensive funding portfolio period for the polytechnics; we are also asking government, actually we have started the process but it’s very slow, to review the Federal Polytechnic Act; we are also asking the government to ensure that there is parity in conditions of service in Nigerian polytechnics irrespective of who the proprietor is; we are also concerned that some of our state polytechnics have deteriorated to the extent that we can’t even guarantee the quality of certificates our people are awarding in those areas.

              So principally, these are some of the areas we are looking at and we are also asking government to take care of the peculiarity of the Integrated Payroll and Personnel Information System, that is the centralised payment system in such a way that it will take care of the peculiarity of the tertiary sector which government has not done and government is trying to forcefully enrol us into the system and we are trying to say no, let’s do these other ones and try to see how it works out; and we are also asking government to release the white paper on the visitation that happened in federal polytechnics about one year nine months ago and that white paper is still being withheld for reasons we do not know.

             So these are the areas we want the government to look at and come to terms with us and we are also talking about migration, the full funding of migration of staff on an elongated salary scale that happened in 2009 and in 2010, whereby a small number of staff were migrated and the larger majority of the staff in the polytechnics were not migrated. So, in effect what it means is that from 2009, the major cadre of staff in the polytechnics has been under-paid by the government and now we are asking the government to pay up and implement the migration properly so that people will not be short-changed any more.

How has it been with the struggle as the ASUP president?

              Mr Kuni Tyessi said; in one word, I would say the challenges could be described as intriguing from several angles. It has been an experience in learning, it has also been an experience in understanding how the structures of bureaucracy work in Nigeria, and on the whole it has also been a mixture of frustration and certainly suspense and failed expectations.

Nigerians were made to understand that the 13 issues you presented to the federal government have been cut to 4 key areas. To what extent has the government fulfilled the key areas?

               Let’s give this issue a proper perspective because it has been an issue for government propaganda. When the supervising minister of education, Barr. Nyesom Wike said they have done 90 percent of our demands, it is practically not true. When in 2013 we came to government, we came with portfolio of 13 demands and when we started discussing with government on the 13 issues that we brought, at a point we had several stakeholders intervening and at a point the federal legislators, the joint education committees of the Senate and the House  of Representatives intervened in the matter and during the negotiation predicated on their intervention, what happened was that, government now appraised the 13 issues and actually suggested that since it was not possible, because there were some of the issues we had to categorised, issues that you could resolve in the long term and issues that you could resolve in the short term, so because we were on strike, and the agreement was that everybody should do something that will immediately reopen the schools, so the government asked us if they could chose those issues that could be resolved within a short period so that we could go back to classroom while we continue discussion on the other issues.

NFF LAUNCHED NEW JERSEY FOR 2014 WORLD CUP

           The Nigerian football federation today launches a brand new jersey for the 2014 FIFA world cup

which will take place in Brazil.

The new jersey,  will be officially launched on March 5th when the Nigerian national team meets Mexico in a pre-world cup friendly taking place in Atlanta, Georgia

Head of the marketing department, Mr. Adama Idris has described the jersey as a 'climacool' designed to fit into all weather as the Brazilian weather changes over time depending on location.

         The colour of the jersey is lemon green, a totally different one from the green color typically associated with   the Nigerian national flag.               Though many fans has been complained about the colour of the new jersey which is a little bit different from previous jersey.  Some people believed that jersey colour determine the performance of Super Eagle.

FRAUD vs AUDITOR

In our society where the business culture has been overridden in recent times with fraudulent practices penetrated by management and employees, the lack of clear understanding of the duties of an auditor in relation to fraud detection has often led to unjustifiable criticisms of auditor’s role. Auditors are known to be competent, honest and independent professionals who express unbiased opinion on the truth and fairness of the financial statement as presented by management to members of the company. The accounting profession has over the years built a reputation, which encourages others to rely upon the opinions auditors express. If these opinions are unclear or even unreliable, serious consequences may and indeed have resulted.

                  It has been observed that “Government spending has always been big business, but it has become so massive today that the public through its legislators is demanding to know whether the huge outlays of money are being spent wisely or whether they should be spent at all.” Officials and employees who manage public sector activities are by virtue of that duty, required to render adequate accounts of their activities to the public.

                 The incidence of fraud continues to increase across public sectors and across nations. Fraud is a universal problem as no nations is immunes, although developing countries and their various states suffer the most pain. Fraud includes all the multifarious means human ingenuity can devise that are resorted to by be individual to get an advantage over another by false suggestions or suppression of the truth. It includes surprises, tricks, cunning or dissembling, and any unfair way by which another is cheated.

CHELSEA STRUGGLE FOR DRAW

Chelsea finally picked up a draw from Mancini's side after Torres netted in a dominant first-half

display, only for Roberto Mancini's side to produce a much improved performance after the break as poor defending allowed Aurelien Chedjou to strike home. Having seen all teams from England Manchester United follow Arsenal and Manchester City in losing their last-16 first-leg ties 2-0, the west Londoners refused to wilt under the intense pressure brought by the raucous Turk Telecom Arena crowd.

            Mourinho named an attack-minded line-up and was rewarded after just nine minutes when fine play down the left ended with Fernando Torres sweeping home Cesar Azpilicueta's measured cross.
It was the first goal by an English side in Europe since Dec. 12 and one Burak Yilmaz thought he had cancelled out as half-time approached, only for his strike from a quickly-taken throw-in to be disallowed as there were two balls on the pitch. The other was under John Terry's arm and the Chelsea captain was booked for his part in the bizarre incident, which saw him booed off the pitch at half-time by the irate home support.
             Galatasaray's fanatical support would soon be thanking Terry, though. Minutes after Selcuk Inan hit the post, the Blues centre-back let Aurelien Chedjou out of his sights as he fired the hosts level to see the tie level when the teams resume battle in three weeks.
             Didier Drogba facing his former club said this was a match of many a sub-plot, varying from Chelsea favourite for the first time to former Manchester City boss Mancini coming up against Mourinho, the man who succeeded him at the Inter Milan helm. However, the build-up focused on trouble in Istanbul as anti-government protests followed a night in which Chelsea confirmed their fans were involved in two incidents, with police warning the 1,300 travelling contingent that it was "not safe" for them to use the Metro to and from ground.
                It was far from the ideal preparation -- nor was the leaking of private comments from Mourinho on Samuel Eto'o and his strikers - although those that made the trip could have few complaints about the manner in which Chelsea started.