Guus Hiddink is the new Chelsea Manager!

Chelsea Football Club can confirm Guus Hiddink has been appointed first-team manager until the end of the season.

The owner and the Board welcome back a coach with a wealth of top-level experience and success, including his previous spell with the club in 2009 when we lifted the FA Cup.

Mr Abramovich and the Board believe that Guus has what it takes to get the best out of our talented squad.

Guus said: 'I am excited to return to Stamford Bridge. Chelsea is one of the biggest clubs in the world but is not where it should be at the moment. However, I am sure we can all turn this season around.

‘I am looking forward to working with the players and staff at this great club and especially renewing my wonderful relationship with the Chelsea fans.'

The Dutchman will be at Stamford Bridge for today’s match but Steve Holland will take control of team matters for the game alongside Eddie Newton, who will now take on the role of assistant first-team coach.

Steve has been an important and influential member of the coaching staff since 2009, while Eddie is Chelsea through and through, having served us as a player and a coach, re-joining the club in 2012 and helping us win the Champions League.

Guus took temporary charge of Chelsea in February 2009, losing just one league game as we recovered from a poor first half of the season to finish third in the Premier League, guaranteeing Champions League football for the next campaign and signing off in style thanks to a 2-1 FA Cup win over Everton at Wembley.

That role was combined with being coach of Russia, one of six international posts he has held during a coaching career which has spanned three decades.

Guus’s first managerial job was in his homeland with PSV, a club he had represented during a 15-year playing career. As coach, he lifted three league titles and the European Cup in 1988. Three more followed during a second stint there between 2002 and 2006, with the intervening years seeing him coach in Turkey and Spain as well as lead the Dutch, South Korean and Australian national teams.

As South Korea coach, he led them to a stunning third place at the 2002 World Cup on home soil, one place better than with the Netherlands four years earlier.

Having taken the Russian job in 2006, Guus led them to the semi-finals of Euro 2008 before taking the reins at Chelsea on a temporary basis in early 2009. A 2-1 win at Aston Villa in his first game set the tone for the remainder of the season, and it took a last-minute Andres Iniesta strike on a controversial night to deny the Blues a place in the Champions League final.

Guus’s first stay in west London ended well, however, with the whole of Stamford Bridge singing his name following our final home game of the season and the fans unveiling a huge ‘thank you’ banner at Wembley prior to the FA Cup final, in which we came from behind to win.

Since then, Guus has coached Turkey and the Netherlands, as well as spending 18 months at Anzhi Makhachkala in Russia, where he signed Willian from Shakhtar Donetsk.

Source: ChelseaFC.com

Ex-Nigerian Oil Minister Plotted To Flee To The Commonwealth of Dominica Before UK Arrest?

Embattled ex-Minister of Petroleum Resources, Diezani Alison-Madueke, is on the verge of leaving her present abode in the United Kingdom for the Commonwealth of Dominica where she has reportedly acquired the citizenship.

Nigeria's Minister of Petroleum resources, Diezani Alison-MaduekeSweet Crude Reports

Mrs.Alison-Madueke  is currently  under investigation  in Britain for alleged corruption while in office.

Investigators in the UK and  Nigeria were shocked by the discovery that she had secretly  acquired the citizenship of the small Caribbean country  of only 72,000 people.

But sources in the UK said  the National Crime Agency (NCA) was already  keeping monitoring   her movement.

It was learnt that the lid was blown open by some anti-corruption and civil society groups in the UK.

Alison-Madueke’s  new  citizenship was confirmed in a May 29, 2015 approval letter by the Prime Minister of the Commonwealth of Dominica, Roosevelt Skerrit,according to a document obtained by one of the groups.

The  letter also claimed that the ex-Minister has been  appointed  that country’s  Trade and Investment Commissioner for the Republic.

Although the letter indicated that the appointment was without salary package, she is expected to help in promoting and marketing Dominica as a trade and investment domicile.

In the diplomatic passport, DP0000445, the Dominican Government said Diezani should be allowed to “pass freely without let or hindrance and afford the bearer such assistance and protection as may be necessary.”

Issued on May 21, 2015, the diplomatic passport is expected to expire on May 20, 2020.

The granting of citizenship to the ex-Minister, whose passport indicated was born on 6th of December, 1960,  has attracted diplomatic concerns.

“I think the NCA is suspecting that she acquired the citizenship of the Commonwealth of Dominica with the intent to relocate to this country. This has opened a fresh bend into our investigation,” a source said last night.

“It is not impossible that she had planned to escape to Dominica ahead  of the inauguration of the administration of President Muhammadu Buhari because her appointment ought to be effective from June 1, 2016 for an initial period of three years.

“She has been placed under stricter surveillance in the light of the latest development.

“While the diplomatic aspect is being handled by the appropriate quarters, I can tell you that the NCA is collaborating with many agencies to bring her to account for any allegation against her.

“The NCA  is conducting extensive investigation into the oil deals during the tenure of Diezani, irrespective of her ongoing treatment for cancer.”

The International Corruption Unit (ICU) of NCA on October 2 arrested Diezani and four others.

All the suspects are being investigated  for alleged bribery and money laundering.

“On Friday, October 2, the National Crime Agency’s recently formed International Corruption Unit arrested five people across London as part of an investigation into suspected bribery and money laundering offences.

“All five people arrested were released on conditional police bail later that evening, pending further investigation both in the UK and overseas.

The investigation commenced in 2013 under the Proceeds of Corruption Unit and transferred to the NCA earlier this year.”

The Press and Public Relations Officer of the British High Commission in Nigeria, Mr. Joe Abuku, had said: “Five people between the age range of 21 and 60 years were arrested by the NCA for bribery and corruption, but they have not given us the details of those involved.”

The EFCC also raided the posh Asokoro residence of  the ex-minister  and retrieved some documents and expensive jewellery.

One of the clues on the ex-Minister which the EFCC is looking into is the alleged spending of $6.9 million to buy three 40-feet mobile stages for use during mass public speaking events.

The cost of the  stages was  allegedly inflated and  there is no evidence  yet  that any stage was purchased at all.

It was learnt that the process of procurement of the three mobile stages was neither known to extant Nigerian laws and due process regulations, nor were the offices of the Auditor-General and the Accountant-General of the Federation in the know.

Also read: http://dejiabiri.blogspot.com.ng/2015/12/petroleum-minister-alison-madueke.html

Source: Sahara Reporters

Petroleum Minister, Alison-Madueke, denies seeking asylum; says she’s going nowhere

April 22, 2015Ibanga Isine

Nigeria's Former Minister of Petroleum Diezani Allison-Madueke

Nigeria’s Minister of Petroleum Resources, Diezani Alison-Madueke, has denied planning to flee the country to escape alleged corruption charges under the incoming Buhari government.

Mrs. Alison-Madueke struck a defiant tone Wednesday, dismissing allegations that six countries had denied her requests for asylum. The minister said she had no plan to escape as she was not indicted for any offence.

Following her recent meeting with former Head of State, Abdulsalami Abubakar, the minister said speculations have been rife that she is looking for a “soft landing” from the in-coming administration.

“I have not sought such assistance because I am not aware that I have been indicted of any crime that I will need a soft landing,” Mrs. Alison-Madueke told journalists at the presidential villa in Abuja Wednesday.

“Over the last four years, I have been severally and unfortunately accused and labeled in so many malicious and vindictive ways.

“I have explained these things and pushed back robustly on these accusations and I have even gone to court on many of them. Yet they keep being regurgitated.

“I think it is unfortunate, particularly when we are moving into a transition period and looking forward to an incoming government which is coming to take over where we have ended,” she said.

While noting that everything that has a beginning must have an end, Mrs. Alison-Madueke said she was surprised at the scale of “malicious libel” directed at her person.

The minister said she has done the best for Nigeria in her present job and has attained many firsts in the history of oil and gas especially in the reforms she has initiated.

Mrs. Alison-Madueke said she was targeted because of her work, and suggested attacks on her were the results of her boldness to bruise powerful interests in the oil and gas industry.

“In this period of time, I have stepped on many big toes, particularly the toes of the cabals that were in the industry when we came in.

“I have said severally said that we will open up the industry to all Nigerians, and we have, but that is not to the pleasure of certain cabals. And I have been continuously maligned because of this.”

According to her, the ministry has taken billions of dollars from multinationals and their subcontractors and put them in the hands of Nigerians through the Nigerian content law.

With the reforms initiated under her watch, she said hundreds of thousands of Nigerians are now playing major roles the oil and gas industry, a situation she said has irked many people.

She lamented that even after the Petroleum Industry Bill was completely revised and reformed, the National Assembly has failed to pass it into law two years after it was presented.

She also said that the refund of the missing $1.48 billion from the accounts of the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation, NNPC, has commenced.

The embattled minister debunked claims that the money was missing from the accounts of the NNPC, saying that the funds were transferred to the Nigerian Petroleum Development Company (NPDC), an NNPC subsidiary.

A forensic audit conducted by the PriceWaterHouseCoopers on behalf of the Federal Government on the operations of the NNPC had shown that the management of the corporation engaged in many questionable deals.

The audit was carried out following allegations by the former Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria, Lamido Sanusi, that over $20 billion was missing from the NNPC accounts.

“PriceWaterHouseCooper’s forensic audit that was done a few weeks ago in its recommendation mentioned that $1.48 billion was owed by NDPC for a bloc that has hitherto been assigned from the NNPC to NDPC which is its subsidiary and they felt that the right process would be that the NPDC will refund that money to the Federation Account,” Mrs. Alison-Madueke said.

“NPDC has apparently started making the refunds and it is also in discussion with NNPC and DPR on same. So the refund has actually begun.”

Source: Premium Times