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Dudu-Orumen rolls out the drums, as Sportshaq, Nigeria’s premier sports bar clocks 30, July 27
Godwin Dudu-Orumen, one of Nigeria’s foremost sports administrators is in celebration mood as Sportshaq Nigeria’s first sports bar and viewing centre, hits three decades.
Dudu-Orumen, the pioneer Chairman of Edo State Sports Commission(ESSC), who is the Founder and Chief Executive Officer(CEO) of Sportshaq, said in a statement signed on his behalf by Nnamdi Okosieme, his Special Adviser on Media and Communication, that the 30th anniversary of the company is worth celebrating given its contribution to birthing a thriving culture of sports bars and viewing centres across the country.
“It has been a worthwhile experience”, says, the irrepressible sports administrator known more famously within and outside Nigeria as Football Aficionado for deep knowledge of football. Recalling how the idea of a sports bar to cater to the interest of Nigeria ‘s teeming sports fans came about, Dudu-Orumen said:
“Sometime in 1994 l toyed with the idea of collective viewership of live sporting events on big and multiple screens especially on Big Match Days of European Football Leagues, the UEFA Champions League and Cups, African Cup Of Nations ( AFCON ) , the Olympic Games, ATP , WTA and Grand Slam Tennis, Formula One, PGA , World Boxing Title Fights, COPA America etc etc etc.
“Ambient in my No 17, Gbajumo Crescent office were multiple screens as l was heavily engaged in TV programmes production and commercial editing and live sports signals came from the two Satellite dishes, one 6.5metres on the Ku-band and the other a 5 metre one on C-band . Next l reached out to my close friends to join me for live broadcasts on match days . Every other match day or live sport event day saw an increase in numbers of friends in the groove. A new idea was birthed , a Sports Bar Concept and l named it Sportshaq.
From 1997 when the company moved to its present location in Surulere, Lagos and a separate section built up for the emergent collective audience viewership morphed into a private membership club, Sportshaq has become a platform for friendship, networking, cross fertilisation and inbibation of ideas by Professionals, Industry Captains, Corporate Executives , Brand Custodians and Managers , Media Executives , Advertising Practitioners, Sports Administrators, Coaches , Sports men and women and Sports Writers and Broadcasters.
On this list of patrons members and clients hosted by Sportshaq are top shots like Asuen Ighodalo, one of Nigeria’s leading lawyers abd current governorship candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in this year’s Edo State governorship election in September, Kola Aluko (SAN) of blessed memory, Chief Segun Odegbami, former captain of the Green Eagle’s and one-time Chairman of the Governing Council of the National Institute of Sports, Austin Eguavoen, former captain and coach of the Super Eagles and currently Head of the Technical Department of the NFF, Otunba Segun Runsewe, former Director General, National Council for Arts and Culture and current President, Nigerian Golf Federation (NGF) and Chief Patrick Ekeji, former Green Eagles defender and former Director General of the National Sports Commission.
Dudu-Orumen says the cross-fertilzation of ideas is enhanced with good home cooking and drinks served at the prescribed temperatures .
“We played games too, Chess, Snooker, Scrabble, Dart and Table Tennis. And occasionally engaged in friendly games with clubs of players in our age bracket. We opened our gates to a controlled audience viewership on the Big Match Day only and l say with 100% conviction the now popular View Centre Culture in Nigeria was influenced by the Sportshaq experience”, Dudu-Orumen said.
The renowned sports administrator who has served the Ministry of Sports and the Nigerian Football Federation in different technical capacities, says he is rolling out the drums to mark the 30th anniversary of the company.
“This July , from the 25-27th we celebrate Sportshaq @ 30 . On the 25th we have the Scrabble Invitational, 26th it Snooker for Members only and on the 27th we have a very Special evening for Reunion of members, reminiscing, foods , drinks the Sportshaq way”, Dudu-Orumen said.
Justice Muhammad Nuraddeen Bello of High Court sitting in Sokoto State has sentenced three men, including a foreign national, to death by hanging, after convicting them on charges bordering on terrorism and arms proliferation.
The convicts, Yusuf Muhammad (alias Sallau), a Nigerien; Jabbi Alhaji Yalle; and Kabiru Muhammad, were apprehended on 13th June, 2025, by the Department of State Services (DSS) Counter Terrorism Unit in connection with cross-border criminal activities bordering on arms trafficking and terrorism.
Bello, who found all three defendants guilty as charged and sentenced them to death by hanging, while also ordering the forfeiture of all monetary exhibits recovered from the convicts to the Federal Government, said: “The conviction is the latest in a series of successful prosecutions by the DSS in its sustained operations against terrorism and organised cross-border criminal networks across Nigeria.”
The sentencing is coming about two weeks after the Federal High Court sitting in Abuja sentenced each of the five suspects arrested on May 31, 2026, by the DSS for their involvement in the November 21, 2025, attack on St Mary’s Catholic School, Papiri, Niger State, to 25 years’ imprisonment.
Justice Binta Nyako, had handed down the judgment after the men, including two Nigeriens, pleaded guilty to all four terrorism-related charges, bordering on support for the commission of an act of terrorism, breaching both Section 16 of the Terrorism (Prevention and Prohibition) Act, 2022, and the Firearms Act, were pressed against them.
According to Count One, the men were accused of jointly conspiring to assist a terrorist by agreeing and intentionally playing various roles towards conveying 15 AK 103 rifles as well as about 1,434 rounds of 7.62mm live ammunition from the Diffa region, Republic of Niger, to one Malam Ahmad, a member of the Boko Haram terrorist group based in Borgu, Niger State, and thereby committed an offence contrary to Section 26(1) of the Terrorism (Prevention and Prohibition) Act, 2022.
Primate Elijah Ayodele, is on the verge of coughing out a whopping N10billion, if he fails to offer unrestrained apology to Rabiu Musa Kwankwaso, former Governor of Kano State within the next 24 hours, and retract his claim that the former Minister of Defence is bidding his time to betray Peter Obi, to whom he is to contest the 2027 presidential election as a running mate.
Without doing so, the controversial cleric, should be ready for a major court battle with the vice-presidential candidate of the Nigeria Democratic Congress (NDC), the platform on which the pair is to contest the election.
In a letter indicating a legal action against Ayodele of the INRI Evangelical Spiritual Church over defamatory remarks, Kwankwaso, through Magaji Mato Ibrahim, SAN & Co., his lawyers demanded an immediate retraction and apology from the cleric over the allegations.
Details of the letter, dated June 11, and unveiled through the X platform of the legal team, was based on a viral video recorded during a live-streamed church service, where the preacher made allegations targeting Kwankwaso’s integrity as Peter Obi’s running mate under the NDC.
Quoting the cleric as stating: “KWANKWASO IS A FAKE TO OBI, KWANKWASO WILL BETRAY YOU. KWANKWASO HAS BEEN PAID TO BE VICE PRESIDENT TO OBI AMONG OTHER LIBELOUS COMMENTS WHILE PRETENDING TO BE A PREACHER,” the former governor said the comments were unprovoked, grossly unfounded, and carefully designed to create a rift within the ranks of the political party and its supporters.
Handing Ayodele a 24-hour ultimatum to publish a full and unequivocal retraction across all social media platforms and news outlets with the same prominence as the original video, they also demanded a written undertaking that he would cease and desist from making any further malicious statements against their client, warning that failure to comply, would lead to full legal actions.
The letter stated: “We shall claim substantial damages to the tune of Ten Billion Naira and cost of the action on a full indemnity basis amongst other reliefs.”
President Bola Ahmed Tinubu on Tuesday demanded the immediate end to the exportation of minerals from countries in Africa in their raw forms, which he said had led to massive exploitation of the continent.
The President, told member countries of the African Minerals Strategy Group (AMSG), a forum of Ministers in charge of Mining and Solid Minerals on the continent to speak with one voice to promote, collective interests, ensure value addition, and prevent the continent from becoming merely a source of raw materials for the rest of the world.
As the Grand Patron of the group, chaired by Dele Alake, Nigeria’s Minister of Solid Minerals Development, gave the charge while receiving a delegation of AMSG in the State House, Tinubu told the delegation that the group had a critical role to play in strengthening Africa’s bargaining power in the global mineral market and ensuring that the continent derives maximum value from its natural resources.
His words: “ What we should do is avoid bureaucracy and deceit; we must put an end to exploitation. The rest of the world won’t mind if your country is a cesspit of dams and rubbish and excavates your raw materials without giving value.
“It is our responsibility to collaborate and cooperate to ensure that these metals and minerals bring value to us, bring technology to us, and we can do it. It is how much each country will put into the research, development and refinery. I don’t see reasons we cannot demand centralisation of that conversation somewhere on the continent. So why not utilise that in our research and development and knowledge-based economy to enhance the quality of life and bring prosperity to our people.”
Emphasising that Africa possessed enormous mineral wealth that should be strategically harnessed to drive industrialisation, create jobs and accelerate economic transformation across the continent, the President, said the era of exporting raw minerals without local processing and beneficiation must give way to a new model that encourages investment in local industries, technology transfer and the development of value chains that retain wealth within Africa.
Alake, who had earlier expressed gratitude to the President for his exemplary leadership under the Renewed Hope Agenda, said the gesture had shown support for Nigeria’s mineral sector, especially in the local value-addition and economic diversification drive, where artisanal miners are empowered.
He told the President: “You encouraged us to look at the focal point of the establishment of this group, which is to ensure that the African natural resources, especially with regards to minerals, critical matters, are localised, the beneficiation coming directly to Africans generally.
“You charged us that we should set our sails very high and ensure that local value addition is a pivot around which all the objectives of this organisation should revolve.
“So, sir, we have gone implemented your charge and we are quitted that today local value addition is reverberating all over Africa.”
He added that some member countries have gone ahead to ban the export of raw minerals.
He explained members of the body were in Abuja for the Fifth edition of the African Natural Resources and Energy Investment Summit (AFNIS 2026), to push for a new continental approach to resource management and industrial development.
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