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Lionel Messi’s Panenka wins it for PSG after RB Leipzig threaten upset

It might sound strange, but despite scoring two goals and winning the game for Paris Saint-Germain with an outrageous Panenka, Lionel Messi did not really have a very good game. Still, nobody at a festive Parc des Princes seemed to mind too much. After looking wooden and curiously passive for an hour, Paris came to life in the last 25 minutes, beating an impressive Leipzig side despite having little cohesion and not much in the way of a tactical plan, but two of the most irresistible attackers on the planet.

With three defeats out of three, Leipzig are now virtually eliminated, and for all their spirit and running, the spotlight will now fall on their new coach Jesse Marsch.

By contrast, you suspect even Mauricio Pochettino does not really know how good this Paris side is. The attacking combinations are still being drilled, the midfield looks overstretched and occasionally the defence gives the impression it wants to run and hide.

In the meantime just savour the entertainment, and the burgeoning bromance between Messi and Kylian Mbappé, who for all their differences, for all the operatic, highly strung drama of recent months, look like they are beginning to enjoy each other’s company.

It was Mbappé who laid on Messi’s first goal and created his second, winning a penalty and allowing Messi a free run at it. In stoppage time Messi returned the favour, spurning the chance of a hat-trick to let Mbappé take the spot-kick, which the France forward duly blazed over the bar. No matter. PSG are back on top of Group A, although not without a few scares.

Even from the early stages you could sense that both teams were there to be got at, and both knew it too. Leipzig pushed high and got the ball forward quickly, trying to create space for their attacking wing-backs. Paris, meanwhile, would look to the spaces in behind, trying to release Mbappé into the open channels. And it was from just such an opening that he got his early goal.

It came via a smart low finish at the end of one of those terrifying, prowling dribbles in which the defender – Willi Orban this time – is almost paralysed with indecision and so ends up being led into a sort of doomed dance. The goal itself was greeted with the imperial assent of a crowd that – without wanting to put too fine a point on it – is used to going 1-0 up an awful lot.

Perhaps the only consolation for Leipzig was that chasing the game required little change in style. Actually, there was another: PSG will generally always give you a chance.

This is, after all, a team that have kept just four clean sheets in 14 games this season. And even as several good opportunities came and went to Konrad Laimer and André Silva (twice), there simply was not the same sort of jeopardy you get when you miss a chance against, say, Chelsea.

Slowly Leipzig were beginning to feel their way into the game, find the spaces. And shortly before the half-hour they were able to stroll the ball up the pitch and work it unfussily from right to left, where Angeliño put in one of his trademark early crosses for Silva to finish from a tight angle. It had been coming.

After a short truce at the end of the first half, Leipzig made their move at the start of the second. Again it came on the counter, the ball spread left to Angeliño, the penalty area packed with white-shirted runners. Nordi Mukiele, the Parisian native, volleyed in Angeliño’s delicious cross, and all of a sudden the heat was on Pochettino, who with precious few attacking alternatives on the bench could change personnel but not the system.

What of Messi? These hectic hard-running games no longer really suit his style: it’s worth remembering that his last game against Bundesliga opposition ended in an 8-2 defeat to Bayern Munich. He had just one touch in the Leipzig penalty area in the first half.

Still, all genius needs is a glimpse. And after bundling the ball in from close range from Mbappé’s unselfish pass he added the coup de grace seven minutes later: an irreverent dink after Mohamed Simakan had pushed the speeding Mbappé over in the area.

In a way, Mbappé’s late missed penalty – awarded after a foul on Achraf Hakimi – felt strangely apt: the comedy bassoon that brought the curtain down on another riotous Parisian farce.

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Police foil N14m ransom payment, rescue kidnap victim, arrest suspects

A kidnap victim, Semiu Ogunniyi, who was abducted from a hotel in Ikare-Akoko, Akoko North-East Local Government Area of Ondo State, has been rescued by police operatives and local hunters.

The Commissioner of Police in the state, Wilfred Afolabi, who disclosed this, revealed that one of the suspected kidnappers involved in the abduction of Ogunniyi, Muhammed Babuga, was arrested in the course of the rescue operation.

According to Afolabi, the kidnappers had demanded a ransom of N14 million for the release of the victim, after which the movement of the suspects was trailed through actionable intelligence.

The police boss disclosed that during the interception, the suspects engaged the operatives in a fierce gun duel, with several suspects sustaining gunshot injuries during the exchange of gunfire.

While speaking with newsmen at the headquarters of the state police command, Afolabi added that two suspected kidnappers, Ibrahim Umar, 25, and Paul Osanyinduro, 38, were arrested in Owo, headquarters of Owo Local Council Area of the state. Abubakar Bamoh, 30, a logistics provider for the kidnappers terrorising various parts of the South-West, was also arrested.

He said, “Command also arrested 3 suspected kidnappers who have confessed to their involvement in various kidnapping cases across the state. This operation marks yet another success in the Command’s ongoing offensive against kidnapping and violent crime in the state.

“Acting on credible intelligence regarding the activities of one Abubakar Bamoh, male, aged 30 years, an indigene of Bunza Local Government Area of Kebbi State, operatives of the Anti-Kidnapping Squad of the Command swung into action and successfully apprehended the suspect at one of the Fulani camps in Igbara-Oke, Ondo State.”
(Daily post)

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SERAP demands explanation over missing N500bn oil revenue from NNPCL

Allow 7m Nigerians to complete voter registration or face legal action, SERAP tells INEC

The Socio-Economic Rights and Accountability Project has asked the Group Chief Executive Officer of the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited, Mr Bayo Ojulari, to immediately account for and explain the whereabouts of the N500 billion oil revenue the company allegedly failed to remit to the Federation Account between October and December 2024.

In a letter dated May 17, 2025, and signed by its Deputy Director, Kolawole Oluwadare, SERAP cited recent revelations by the World Bank which showed that out of N1.1 trillion earned from crude oil sales and other income in 2024, only N600 billion was remitted by the NNPCL, leaving a staggering N500 billion unaccounted for.

The organisation is demanding full disclosure and recovery of the missing funds, and has threatened legal action should the company fail to act within seven days.

“SERAP is writing to request you to use your good offices and leadership position to promptly account for and explain the whereabouts of the missing N500 billion, which the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited failed to remit to the Federation Account,” the letter stated.JAMB’s

SERAP also urged Ojulari to identify and surcharge those responsible for the missing funds and hand them over to anti-graft agencies for investigation and prosecution.

“SERAP urges you to promptly identify those suspected to be responsible for the alleged missing oil money, surcharge them for the full amount involved, and hand them over to the ICPC and the EFCC,” the group wrote.

Citing the World Bank report, the group noted that revenue from oil sales and other sources was expected to be fully paid into the Federation Account and shared by all tiers of government, but the NNPCL failed to comply.

“Nigerians have the right to know why the NNPCL is remitting only 50 per cent of the gains generated from the removal of petrol subsidies to the Federation Account,” SERAP said.

“The failure by the NNPCL to remit the money is a grave violation of the public trust and the provisions of the Nigerian Constitution, national anti-corruption laws, and international obligations under the UN Convention against Corruption.”

SERAP warned that the alleged disappearance of such a large sum has serious implications for economic development, poverty alleviation, and the provision of basic public services at a time of national hardship.

“Despite the country’s enormous oil wealth, ordinary Nigerians have derived very little benefit from oil money primarily because of widespread grand corruption, and the entrenched culture of impunity of perpetrators,” the group added.

It stressed that the failure of the NNPCL to uphold transparency and accountability standards has worsened the country’s fiscal crisis.

“The missing oil revenue reflects a failure of NNPCL accountability more generally and is directly linked to the institution’s continuing failure to uphold the principles of transparency,” SERAP noted.

Citing paragraph 3112(ii) of the Financial Regulations 2009, the group said any public officer who fails to account for government revenue “shall be surcharged for the full amount involved and handed over to either the EFCC or the ICPC.”

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Security Operatives Nab ‘Wanted’ Kidnapper In Abuja Hajj Camp

Security operatives have reportedly arrested a wanted kidnapper at the hajj camp in Abuja.

A security source at the camp confirmed the arrest to our correspondent, on Sunday.

He said the suspect was nabbed during screening of pilgrims who were preparing to be airlifted to Saudi Arabia. He disclosed that the suspect identified as Yahaya Zango resided at Paikon -Kore in Gwagwalada area council of the FCT.

The source said security agencies had declared him wanted, following his alleged involvement in some kidnappings.

He said the suspect presented his passport alongside other Muslim contingent from Abuja who were on their way to observe this year’s hajj. “It was this afternoon during the screening at the hajj camp in airport when the DSS operatives apprehended him and whisked him away,” he said