Troops yesterday used jets and attack helicopters to bombard Boko Haram Islamic camps in Sambisa Game Reserve, in Borno State, which is one of their strongholds killing a number of the insurgents. The Sambisa Camps are believed to be harbouring their training and enrolment base.

Following the declaration of state of emergency in Borno, Yobe and Adamawa states by President Goodluck Jonathan last Tuesday, and the deployment of over 3000 troops and Counter Terrorists Squad (CTS) within 24 hours of the declaration, the military, yesterday, launched air and ground offensive in the thick forests of Sambisa, Borno State, an area which the Boko Haram sect was reported to have used as a recruiting and training base.

Robust support came for President Goodluck Jonathan from South-South and South-East governors, who yesterday, gave a strong endorsement of his leadership and charged him to confront terror wherever it may be found in the land.

Northern elders have pointedly said President Goodluck Jonathan will not be re-elected in 2015.

They, therefore, said a segment of the Niger Delta people, particularly erstwhile militant leader, Alhaji Asari Dokubo, who said there would be war in Nigeria if their kinsman, Jonathan, is not re-elected, may start their action now.

The Nasarawa State Police Command has said that only 17 out of the 90 Police officers, excluding other security officers, who were on a mission to arrest the chief priest of Ombatse Shrine, located at Assakyo village, about 10 kilometres from Lafia, the state capital, returned so far with various degrees of wounds.

Boko Haram militants, yesterday, launched series of coordinated attacks on Police, Army and Prison formations in Bama town, Borno State, leaving no fewer thatn 55 persons dead.

A Report of the Senate Committee on Public Accounts, presented to the Senate, yesterday, revealed how the Federal Government under three successive administrations from 2002 to 2012, grossly abused funds from the nation’s Special Funds Accounts to the tune of N1.2 trillion.

The political forces against Governor Rotimi Amaechi of Rivers State cut sharper, yesterday, after 27 lawmakers loyal to the governor out of 32 in the State House of Assembly were suspended by the new leadership of the Peoples Democratic Party, PPD in the state. Their seats were immediately declared vacant.

Former Minister of Petroleum Resources, Senator Jubril Aminu, yesterday, pleaded with the Presidency and patriotic Nigerians to restrain governors from ruining the country.

Aminu, who spoke in an exclusive interview with Sunday Vanguard, accused the governors of arrogating to themselves roles that were not in the Constitution thereby conferring illegal advantage on themselves to the detriment of majority of Nigerians.

Governors of the 19 Northern states, yesterday regretted that President Goodluck Jonathan has not punished those who allegedly stole the nation’s oil money, warning that the situation portends danger for the country.

Following the outrage that greeted the alleged killing of about 185 persons including women and children in a shoot out between soldiers and Boko Haram insurgents in Baga, a fishing community in Borno State, last Friday, the military yesterday explained that six civilians, one soldier and 30 terrorists died, while 15 others were injured in an operation that was carried out by a multinational force comprising troops from Nigeria, Chad and Niger Republic.

No fewer than 185 persons, including women and children, have been killed and more than 2000 houses destroyed in an intense fighting between the military and suspected members of Boko Haram sect in Baga, a fishing community in Kukawa Local Government Area of Borno State.

President Goodluck Jonathan, yesterday reacted to criticism of his government by opposition leaders during the national convention of the Action Congress of Nigeria, ACN, last week in Lagos, dismissing them as people who do not have what it takes to move the nation forward.