The 24-year-old Manchester United star who is Muslim and went on a pilgrimage to Islam’s holiest site in Mecca after the end of the season — told the latest issue of Esquire magazine people must not give in to terror.

The French international — who also lost his father Fassou in May — was inspirational in the Europa League final that took place two days after a suicide bomber blew himself up at the end of a pop concert at the Manchester Arena.

United beat Ajax 2-0 with Pogba, who scored the second, dedicating the victory to the 22 victims and the scores who were injured.

“It’s a very difficult moment but you cannot give up. We can’t let them get in our heads — we have to fight for it,” he said.

“Sad things happen in life but you cannot stop living. You cannot kill a human being. To kill a human being — it’s something crazy, so I don’t want to put religion on it.

“This is not Islam and everybody knows that. I won’t be the only one saying that.”

Pogba, who also won the League Cup in his first season back at United, said he drew his sense of fun from his father, who died aged 79.

“When you lose someone you love, you don’t think the same way. That’s why I say I enjoy life, because it goes very fast.

“I remember when I was talking to my dad and now he’s not here. He was a very strong man, very stubborn as well. He fought, but at his age it’s not easy.

“Every time you had time with him you were laughing. Very clever as well, because he was a professor. You have to remember the happy things.”

On the footballing side Pogba said that criticism of his performances in not living up to the weight of being the most expensive player in the sport was water off a duck’s back.

“After one week, I forgot,” said Pogba, who United paid £89.3 million ($114 million) in August 2016 from Italian club Juventus.

“It’s people that reminded me. Because, at the end of the day, when you die, the most expensive and the less expensive, they go in the same grave. So I don’t even think about it.”

Pogba, who also dismissed the sniping at the overall performances of Jose Mourinho’s side saying they may not always have played well but they still won three trophies, admitted his first spell at United aged just 16 he hadn’t been able to settle due to not understanding then manager Alex Ferguson.

“No! No, I couldn’t. At first, I couldn’t,” he said referring to the Scot’s accent.

“I couldn’t even understand my teammates with their Mancunian accents.

“My friends right now, they laugh at me. They say, ‘Oh, I remember the first days you couldn’t speak and now — you speak Mancunian with the accent!’ So it’s funny.”

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The State Governor, Akinwunmi Ambode, who handed down the warning at a meeting with leaders of Agbado Oke-Odo Market held at Lagos House in Ikeja, said the activities of the traders who are in such habit had reached a level which the State Government could no longer condone, hence the need for a final warning.

The Governor, who was represented by the Secretary to the State Government, Tunji Bello, said the leaders of markets in the State have been warned and counseled severally on the need to rein in on their market men and women to desist from disturbing others through their trading activities on the roads, but some have become adamant.

He said aside causing avoidable and needless traffic, the traders were also in the habit of dumping their refuse on the road, thereby causing environmental and health hazards.

“This is just to come and deliberate on the Agbado Oke-Odo Market because of the situation there. The market has become a stumbling block particularly to those using the road. The traders have blocked the Lagos-Abeokuta Expressway to the extent that even the contractors working there don’t have place to work because they have taken over the area.

“They cause a lot of traffic gridlock and people coming from Ota or from Abule Egba don’t have the road to connect other areas of the State. We have warned them consistently but we are yet to get any result. That is why we have summoned today’s meeting.

“The meeting is basically to call them to order and give them the last warning. The idea initially was to shut down the market today but the Governor decided that we should give them just one week to put things in order,” Bello said.

He said in as much as government was not interested in shutting down markets, but it would have no choice than to wield the big stick if traders continue constituting themselves as menace to other road users.

“What we are saying is that the government is not interested in shutting down any market because of the economic implication on the people who have to survive and live. As a government, we are not interested in shutting down business enterprises and all that, but if it is constituting menace and inconveniencing other people, we will have no choice than to wield the big stick, and that is why we are giving the market leaders the last warning to go and re-order their market.

“The leaders of the market must sit up and look at how to help government because we cannot say because we are trading, we should inconvenience people who go to work from Abule Egba to Lagos Island for instance and to other places and they have to spend hours on that road just because of the activities of the traders.

“Apart from that, we have a lot of filth on the road because the market people just dump their refuse on the road. We don’t want that anymore and that is why we are giving this last warning. We don’t want anybody on the road again and whatever we have to do internally as a government, we will not hesitate to do. We will send Task Force and the men of the Kick Against Indiscipline (KAI) to the place to ensure sanity.

“This warning to Agbado Oke-Odo traders also applies to other markets in the State. Any market where their traders are blocking the road and constituting menace to others will be shut down till further notice,” Bello threatened.

Responding on behalf of others, Babaloja Araromi Agbado Oke-Odo, Alhaji Mukaila Oyinlola, said as market leaders, they have warned the traders who are in the habit of selling on the road to desist, but their warnings have fallen on deaf ears, adding that the resolve of government was a welcome development.

Also, Iyaloja Araromi Oke-Odo Market, Mrs Dupe Shonola and Babaloja General of Agbado Oke-Odo Market, Alhaji Abiodun Kosoko urged government to make examples of the perpetrators of the illegal act, but called for expansion and modernization of the market.

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Bama was retaken from Boko Haram last week.

Spokesperson for the military, Chris Olukolade, a Major General, said that over a 20 militants died while others fled with wounds.

He said many more of the attacking terrorists also died as air patrol went after the fleeing ones.

He said the pursuit of the terrorists was still ongoing while calm had been restored and troops maintained firm control of Bama town.

“A Hilux vehicle as well as other equipment and some weapons were captured from the attackers,” Mr. Olukolade said.
“One soldier died while seven were wounded while repelling the attack.

“They have been evacuated from the combat area by air and are already receiving medical attention,” he said.
Mr. Olukolade said most of the towns slated to be cleared of terrorists were already covered.

He said the campaign to rid rest of the communities of Boko Haram with continued air and land operations had been stepped up in the remaining designated locations.

He added that cordon and search of cleared communities were also ongoing with some discoveries of weapons and vestiges of atrocities committed by the terrorists while they held sway in some locations.

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