The Super Falcons clinched a record-extending 10th WAFCON title on Saturday after coming from behind to defeat host nation Morocco 3-2 in a thrilling final.

Upon the team’s return to Nigeria, President Tinubu honoured all 24 players and the 11-member technical crew with national recognition, conferring on them the prestigious title of Officer of the Order of the Niger (OON).

In addition to the national honours, the President announced cash and housing rewards. Each player will receive a cash prize of $100,000 (in naira equivalent), while each member of the technical team will take home $50,000.

Furthermore, all 35 recipients will be allocated three-bedroom apartments under the government’s Renewed Hope Housing Scheme.

“I hereby confer on the 24 players and the 11-man technical team the national honours of Officer of the Order of the Niger. Additionally, I have directed the allocation of three-bedroom apartments under the Renewed Hope Housing Scheme.

“There is also the cash award of the naira equivalent of $100,000 to each player and $50,000 to each member of the technical crew,” President Tinubu announced.

Meanwhile, four standout players—Rasheedat Ajibade, Esther Okoronkwo, Michelle Alozie, and Chiamaka Nnadozie—have been named in the official WAFCON Team of the Tournament, further underscoring Nigeria’s dominance at the continental showpiece.

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The presidency blamed political opponents for such rumors, saying “there is no iota of truth” in them.

The speculation began before Mr Tinubu, who once served as governor of Lagos, took power last May.

It reached a fever pitch this week after it was announced that the airport’s agency and a central bank department were moving to Lagos.

Abuja replaced Lagos as Nigeria’s capital in 1991. It was a purpose-built, planned city – its location was chosen because it is in the center of the country, while Lagos is on the southwest coast.

Lagos, the capital during British colonial rule, remains the country’s economic hub and biggest city.

The presidency said it had decided to issue a statement to scotch the rumours about relocating the capital as “mischief-makers” seemed bent on “fuelling needless ethnic mistrust”.

“The people pushing the relocation narrative are playing dangerous politics, to pit the north against the south,” said Bayo Onanuga, a presidential adviser who issued the statement.

Nigeria is split between the mainly Muslim north and largely Christian south – though Africa’s most-populous nation has more than 250 ethnic groups speaking more 500 distinct languages.

There are three main groups: Hausa in the north, Yoruba in the west and Igbo in the east.

In recent years some figures from the south-west region surrounding Lagos have been calling for a separate Yoruba nation – though it is not regarded as a serious threat.

Because Mr Tinubu is from the Yoruba community, some fear that he would like to move the capital as part of a plan to favour the south-west over the rest of the country.

But this was denied by his adviser.

“President Tinubu-led administration is working tirelessly to be just and equitable to every section of the country,” Mr Onanuga said.

The relocation of the Federal Airport Authority of Nigeria (Faan) and the Central Bank of Nigeria’s banking supervision department to Lagos was purely administrative, he added.

The President has also approved zero fares for train transportation in all the states of the federation within the same period.

The Minister of Solid Minerals Development, Dele Alake, disclosed this while briefing journalists at the Presidential Villa, Abuja.

He said that all the logistics for the implementation have been worked out between the Minister of Transportation, the transport unions and luxury buses owners.

According to him, “This presidential initiative is to give succour to the masses.

“It is on record that the masses don’t patronise air travel. This programme is not beyond the affordability of the government.”

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The lone protester was carried off the Abuja-bound flight on Friday despite his resistance.

In the video, he is heard saying “Tinubu cannot be sworn in”. Then in another clip where he is being taken out, he’s heard shouting “Obidients you’re here.

“They are doing this to me. Obidients you’re here, I am naked. Obidients you’re here, I am going naked.”

His action delayed the 6:pm flight for an extra hour and took the effort of over five airport security officers to remove him.

Govs ask DSS to arrest interim government plotters

The thirty- six state governors under the aegis of the Nigeria Governors’ Forum had on Friday asked the Department of State Services, DSS to immediately arrest and prosecute those it has identified to be planning to install an interim government rather than issuing statements and heating up the polity.

The governors who condemned any unconstitutional means of regime change, however, vowed to resist such move, just as they assured their commitment to continue in the defence of Nigeria’s democracy as elected leaders.

The DSS had earlier in a statement said that the agency had identified some key players in the plot for an Interim Government in Nigeria but did not give the names of the masterminds.

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The agency had said that the planners of the interim government had already held several meetings, during which they weighed many options to actualize their plot including sponsoring endless mass protests across Nigerian cities, securing a warrant to declare a state of emergency or a court injunction to stop the inauguration of the executive and the legislature at the federal and state levels.