The Council also challenged the Petroleum Trust Development Fund (PTDF) to follow the line of the transparency and accountability of Yar’Adua administration to publish the details of its activities from inception, showing who had been trained and their places of origin against the backdrop of allegations that the PTDF had trained far less Niger Deltans than others in a deliberate intent to favour others against them.

By Kingsley Omonobi

ABUJA — Ex-MASSOB Commander and leader of a dreaded 29-man gang of kidnappers and robbers who have terrorized the South East for over two and half years, Innocent Orji, alias ‘B’ stone General’, was yesterday paraded by the
Inspector General of Police, Mike Okiro in Abuja.

Orji confessed that one of [...]

He noted that the decisions of the state government on fiscal policies and development projects were based on the need of the people, stressing that the trivial outburst of some critics should not be an excuse to reprimand the present administration.

By Dayo Benson, Political Editor, Demola Akinyemi & Gbenga Ariyibi

ILORIN — THE Action Congress (AC) senatorial candidate in Ekiti Central Senatorial District in the last election, Mr Ola Festus Bode, was yesterday declared the winner by the Court of Appeal sitting in Ilorin.

Mr Bode is to replace the incumbent senator, Mr Adefemi Kila [...]

The embattled monarch said that six of the 11 villages that formerly made up Oporomor Kingdom before they seceded to form Egrangbene Kingdom are from one descendant and speak a different Ijaw dialect which distinguishes them from the others, noting that they were unique and from Ogbe-Ijoh in Warri South-West Council Area of the state.

By Emma Amaize
WARRI—A group of armed robbers who hijacked a Toyota Hiace bus belonging to Igbinedion Universtiy, Okada in Edo State and were busy robbing passengers on Eku-Abraka Road in Delta State were forced to abandon their loot and flee for their dear lives following an exchange of gunfire with the men of [...]

The workshop is billed to be chaired by Senator Folasade Bent, Chairman of the Senate Committee on Environment and Ecology, while Director General of the National Oil Spill Detection and Remediation Agency (NOSDRA), Dr. Bamidele Ajakaiye, would present a lead paper.

By Dennis Agbo

ABAKALIKI—Governor Martin Elechi of Ebonyi state has denied having special interest or candidate of choice in the Nigeria Union of Journalists (NUJ) Ebonyi state chapter election, slated for July 8, 2009.

There has been tension among journalists in the state, as some aspirants had gone to town, boasting  that they were the [...]

Comrade Oshiomhole lamented that the N4.4 billion due to the state government was now lying in the vaults of the Central Bank of Nigeria attracting no interest, adding that the fund was now of no use to the government and could not be deployed for the planned renovation and equipment necessary to improve the public school system for the thousands of primary school pupils and junior secondary school students.

By  Chidi Nkwopara

OWERRI—Mysterious fire, yesterday destroyed the studio and transmitters of the Nigerian Television Authority (NTA) Channel 12, Owerri, Imo state.

Vanguard gathered that the fire started from the studios of the television station. According to an eye witness account,  men of the Imo State Fire Service promptly responded to the distress call, but [...]