Author: Aishat Ibrahim

Adaku Ufere Wins 2017 African Legal Award

Adaku Ufere, has won the ‘Attorney of the Year’ in 2017 edition of the African Legal Awards.

Adaku Ufere was selected from thousands of entries across the African continent. She is the youngest ever, and first Nigerian winner of the Attorney of the Year award. She is a graduate of Law from the University of Nigeria, obtaining a Second Class Honours Upper Division grade from the Nigeria Law School, Abuja, before proceeding to the University of Aberdeen in Scotland for her Master’s Degree in Law, where she specialised in Oil and Gas Law.

Adaku Ufere is an international oil and gas lawyer and is Head of the Energy Practice at the Pan African Law firm, the Centurion Law Group with its Headquarters in Johannesburg, South Africa.

In 2016, she received an award as one of the 40 under 40 Leading Lawyers in Nigeria at the Nigerian Legal Awards 2016, which held at the Civic Centre in Victoria Island, Lagos.

The African Legal Awards recognises exceptional achievements from within Africa’s legal community, and is hosted by Legal Week (organisers of the British Legal Awards), in association with the Corporate Counsel Association of South Africa (CCASA)

Sambo Wali And Bello Oke-Are Receive FASIN Awards [2017]

Professor Sambo Wali Junaidu of the Arabic Department, Usmanu Danfodiyo University Sokoto and Shaykh Bello Oke-Are from Ibadan, Oyo state have received Fellow of Arabic Studies in Nigeria (FASIN) Awards.

The FASIN award was given to them by the Academic Society for Arabic Language and Literature in Nigeria (ASALLIN) at the opening session of its 13th National Conference held at the Sokoto State University, Sokoto. The fellows were awarded with respect to their intellectual contributions to the development of Arabic Language and Literature in Nigeria.

Continue reading Sambo Wali And Bello Oke-Are Receive FASIN Awards [2017]

Winners Of Ecuador-Nigeria Writing Contest [2017]

Winners have emerged from the Ecuador-Nigeria Young Writers Short Story contest organised by Abuja Writers’ Forum (AWF) and the Ecuadorian government.

The First Ambassador of Ecuador to Nigeria, Leopold Verdosoto had announced the sponsorship of the Short Story Contest for young writers from Ecuador and Nigeria, at the June 24 Guest Writer Session. There was an appreciable response from all over the country.

The judges which include Professor Zaynab Alkali, Friday Ejilogo and George Bala were given blind copies of all the entries. After careful deliberation, the following entries were adjudged the top five:

1st Prize

Tunde Ososanya, a graduate of Mass Communication from the Nigerian Institute of Journalism, Lagos. Ososanya clinched first prize with his story ‘Wellington Street’. He is 27 years, and was a participant of the 2015 ANA/Yusuf Ali Creative Writing Workshop in Abuja. In 2016, he published an eBook version of his debut book – a collection of short stories – titled: Later Tonight.

2nd Prize

Jude Valentine Badaki, who holds a BA in English, Professional Diploma in Education (PDE ), and MA in English for Specific Purposes (ESP). Badaki clinched second prize with his story ‘Canvas of Colours’. He has published in a number of anthologies, journals and literary websites.

3rd Prize

Nzube Harry Nlebedim, a student of English at the University of Lagos. Nlebedim clinched third prize with his story ‘The Tale of Alvine Chike’. He is a writer, teacher and occasional poet, he has written several short stories and two novellas.

4th Prize

Blessing Akinsehinwa, a legal practitioner, certified arbitrator, blogger and a freelance creative writer. Akinsehinwa clinched fourth prize with his story ‘On The Shores of Death’. He runs a blog kremlinkidd.wordpress.com on which some of his works can be found. He is also a member of professional bodies such as the Nigerian Bar Association, Young ICCA and the Abuja Literary Society.

5th Prize

Jojo Altine ElHassan,  a Masters degree holder in Environment and Sustainable Development from the University College London and a Bachelors in Surveying from the University of Wolverhampton. ElHassan clinched fifth prize with his story ‘Killing Me Softly’.

The winners of the Ecuador-Nigeria writing contest [are] published in a bilingual publication (English and Spanish).

Access Bank Lagos City Marathon Receives IAAF Bronze Label Award [2017]

Access Bank Lagos City Marathon has been awarded the IAAF Bronze Label by the International Association of Athletics Federation (IAAF).

A statement signed by the Access Bank Lagos City Marathon Head of Communications and Media Olukayode Thomas disclosed that among the thousands of races worldwide, only 88 are labeled by IAAF, Access Bank Lagos City Marathon is one of the new additions to the elite club. With this feat, Access Bank Lagos City Marathon has now joined global elite races like New York, Boston, Chicago, Tokyo, Dubai, London, Roma, Paris, Berlin, and others.

According to the Project Consultant Olopade:

“We are a global brand today because of Governor Ambode’s vision and foresight, without him there won’t be anything called Access Bank Lagos City Marathon. It is his support that ensured that we got a personality like Norris Williamson, a grade A IAAF/AIMS measurer, who measured the route of Atlanta, Sydney, Athens and Beijing Olympics Games to measure and certify our route, which ensured that we are a label race before our third edition.’’

Olopade also thanked Access Bank the race sponsor and other sponsors and supporters like 7Up, Bet naija, Eko Hotels, Eko Atlantics, GAC Motors and the staff of the Marathon Office for making this achievement possible.

IAAF label races are races that are designate as leading road races around the world. It was first introduced for the 2008 race. The conditions for the award of IAAF label are stringent they include but not limited to an international elite field, the race course closed to vehicular traffic, route measured to the Association of International Marathons and Distance Races (AIMS) standard, use of electronic timing to generate the results, a specified number of doping tests, equal prize money for the participants and others.

Kwara Falcons Emerge Champions In Kwese Premier Basketball League [2017]

Kwara Falcons has emerged and crowned champions of the 2017 Kwese Premier basketball league; final victory was recorded against Rivers Hoopers in a game that ended 68-57 points.

Hoopers came second at the end of the 6-day championship while Hoops&Read who defeated Customs 85-66 finished 3rd.

Customs were fourth, Oluyole Warriors and Police Baton were fifth and sixth respectively. Only top four teams qualified for the final 8 which is to take place in Kano in September [2017].

Kano Pillars Emerge Champions In Savanna Conference Six Play-offs [2017]

Kano Pillars have emerged champions in the Kwese Premier League Savannah Conference Six play-offs by winning all their five matches and ending the championship with 100 percent record.

The tournament, which held inside the Indoor Hall of the Murtala Square, Kaduna, between August 14 and 19 had six teams from the Savannah Conference including Kano Pillars, Gombe Bulls, Plateau Peaks, Niger Potters, Bauchi Net and Kada Stars. Bauchi Net and Kada Stars replaced Mark Mentors and Defenders, both of Abuja, which failed to turn up for the competition.

To emerge champions of the conference, Pillars beat hard fighting Gombe Bulls 104 to 97 points in their first game, defeated Kada Stars 91 to 58 points, stopped Bauchi Net 85 to 44 points, beat Niger Potters 103 to 71 points and routed Plateau Peaks 80 to 64 points to maintain an unbeaten run.

Coach of the Kano-based team, Sani Ahmed, described his team’s performance as in line with his club’s desire to retain the trophy at the Final Eight in Kano. In his words:

“Winning the Savanna Conference Six shows the level of consistency in the club. It also tells of the amount of hard work put in by the players to winning tournaments. The team is not 100 percent perfect yet. We are still a high scoring side averaging 80 points per game, but we are still going to do more so as to defend and win the Final Eight at home in Kano. Our tradition is to win any tournament we find ourselves in. So, we aim to retain the Final Eight. We have noticed some weaknesses and lapses in the course of our games and will work on them before the Final Eight. I noticed the boys sometimes get complacent; but we need to be consistent and more perfect in taking shots.”

The coach also disclosed that the Conference play-offs was part of preparations for his team’s participation in an invitational tournament slated in Malaysia in the first week of September.

 “Immediately after the play-offs and Final Eight we shall be honouring a fully sponsored trip to Malaysia for an invitational tournament involving teams from Japan, China, Malaysia and other Asian countries. Good enough, we will be prepared because this championship serves as good preparations for the tournament,” he said.

Other teams that qualified from the Savannah Conference Six are Niger Potters, Gombe Bulls and Plateau Peaks. The Final Eight in Kano will see four teams each from the Atlantic and Savannah Conferences battle for the ultimate prize to climax the Kwese Premier League Season.