To commemorate Nigeria’s 64th Independence Day anniversary, the Federal Government has declared Tuesday, October 1st, as a public holiday.

Announcing the holiday in Abuja, Minister of Interior, Dr. Olubunmi Tunji-Ojo, praised the patient and hard-working Nigerian men and women, stating that their sacrifices will not be in vain.

Congratulating Nigerians at home and abroad on this occasion, the minister on behalf of the government reiterated the need for Nigerians to “reflect on the labour of our heroes past and be inspired for the tasks ahead, realizing that a Nigeria of our dream can only be built when we unite.”

In a statement by the Permanent Secretary of the ministry, Dr. Magdalene Ajani, Tunji-Ojo urged the citizens to continue to be steadfast in nation-building.

Sevilla manager Garcia Pimienta has admitted that Kelechi Iheanacho is still struggling to find his form at the club, according to online reports

.The Nigerian striker, who joined Sevilla in the summer after building a strong reputation during his time with Manchester City and Leicester City in the Premier League, has yet to live up to expectations.

Iheanacho has not registered a goal or an assist in four league appearances for the Rojiblancos.Despite his slow start, Pimienta remains confident that Iheanacho will regain his best form soon.

“He [Iheanacho] has quality, but he joined the team a month late and was training on his own. He’s still adapting. The two weeks with the national team, where he didn’t play, didn’t help,” Pimienta told Spanish outlet Ondacero.“We need to give him confidence.

He’s a quality player, and based on what he’s achieved, it’s only a matter of time before we see him at his best. He has the talent and ability to succeed.”

Chelsea manager Enzo Maresca has praised Marc Cucurella as a “very important” member of the squad, expressing that he wishes to have “seven players” like him.

Speaking ahead of Saturday’s Premier League clash with Brighton, Maresca was asked about the defender’s performance this season.

The Chelsea boss emphasized that the 26-year-old not only excels individually but also enhances the performance of his teammates.”Marc [Cucurella] is very important,” Maresca told reporters on Friday.

“He has qualities that are sometimes hard to find in players.

He makes those around him better because he’s always talking and demanding more.

“Having five, six, or seven players like Marc, who are constantly pushing others to improve, is very valuable. I’m very happy with Marc.”

Lebanon’s health ministry has announced that hospitals in Beirut’s southern suburbs will be evacuated following a series of heavy Israeli airstrikes in the area.

In response to the escalating situation, the ministry has called on hospitals in regions not impacted by the strikes to halt the admission of non-emergency cases.

This directive is intended to ensure sufficient capacity to treat patients from the evacuated hospitals.

The ministry’s statement, issued on Saturday, urged unaffected hospitals to keep beds available for patients transferred from the southern suburbs, asking them to refrain from taking in non-urgent cases until the end of the following week.

Although the statement highlighted the seriousness of the situation, the health ministry has not yet provided an updated figure on casualties resulting from the attacks, according to Agence France-Presse.

Donald Trump on Friday accused Google of showing only “bad stories” about him and vowed to have the tech giant prosecuted if he gets back in the White House.

Trump provided no backing for his accusation in a post on his Truth Social platform, in which he added that the search engine displays only positive articles about his Democratic rival Vice President Kamala Harris.

“This is an ILLEGAL ACTIVITY, and hopefully the Justice Department will criminally prosecute them for this blatant Interference of Elections,” he said in the post.

“If not, and subject to the Laws of our Country, I will request their prosecution, at the maximum levels, when I win the election.”

The Trump post came after a conservative group reported on what it said it found when doing a search on “Donald Trump presidential race 2024.”

“Both campaign websites consistently appear at the top of Search for relevant and common search queries,” Google said in response to an AFP inquiry.

“This report looked at a single rare search term on a single day a few weeks ago, and even for that search, both candidates’ websites ranked in the top results on Google.”

Google has been adamant that it does not manipulate search results to favor any political candidate.

The company does not disclose the inner workings of the software that powers its ubiquitous search engine.

However, factors known to influence search results for news stories include the timeliness and popularity of topics.

Trump is at the center of numerous criminal and civil cases in which he faces accusations including sexual abuse, paying hush money to a porn star, interfering with the 2020 election and trying to thwart the peaceful transition of power after President Joe Biden defeated him.

The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), has arrested a former governor of Taraba State, Darius Ishaku, over an alleged fraud of N27bn.

Ishaku was reportedly picked up at his Abuja residence in the early hours of Friday.

The former governor was said to still be in the anti-graft agency’s custody as of the time of filing this report.

According to Daily Trust, at least 15-count charges have been filed against Ishaku and he would be arraigned in court soon as evidence against him has been compiled.

“Yes, he’s in our custody right now. We have been investigating him covertly since he left as the State governor. There is a lot of financial malfeasance he perpetrated,” the source said.

The spokesman of the EFCC, Dele Oyewale, confirmed the development but declined further comments when contacted by the paper.

Ishaku’s arrest is coming on the heels of ongoing face-off between the commission and the former governor of Kogi State, Yahaya Bello, who was alleged to have stolen N80.2bn.