Governorship aspirant of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, in Kogi State, Ambassador Yusuf Abubakar, yesterday, vowed to end the age-long crisis that has ravaged the state.

MINISTER of Information, Prof. Dora Akunyili, yesterday in Asaba, said that the Delta State has taken the leading position towards embracing the Rebranding Nigeria Project, just as the Delta State Governor, Dr. Emmanuel Uduaghan called for the prosecution of writers of frivolous petitions to the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC, and other security agencies in the spirit of the on-going rebranding effort.

The delay by the Niger Delta Development Commission, NDDC, management in approving the re-designed N14 billion Koko-Oghoye Road project in Delta State, three months after submission by the company handling the project, has been blamed for the grounding of the project.

DELTA State Governor, Dr. Emmanuel Uduaghan has inaugurated a 31-man Committee to study the Local Content Bill and work out modalities on how Deltans can benefit immensely from it. He called on Deltans not to be on-lookers but be active players in the oil and gas industry.

He said the journalists who ask Babangida such simple and historically correct questions are “being lazy scholars”.
Yet his claimed ‘scholarship’ did not in any way attempt an answer, rather he makes the bizarre submission that “rather than condemn in such wholesale manner the annulment, we should also be able to commend the man who made the election to be credible in the first place”.

TWO minor factors that emphasise governments insensitive to Nigerians – our overwhelmingly unacceptable sanitary conditions and the abysmally low levels of access to medical services – have helped in the ricocheting cholera outbreaks.

THE Ogun State House of Assembly, State Secretariat at Oke-Imosan including the Governor’s Office were, yesterday, sealed up by armed policemen said to be acting on the instructions of the Inspector General of Police, Mr. Ogbonna Onovo, following the political crisis in the State.

Activities have ground to a halt in all public hospitals, clinics and health centres in Imo State, following the two-day total strike ordered by the state branch of Nigerian Medical Association, NMA.

THE Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, yesterday, fixed January 22, 2011 for the presidential elections, according to the time table of activities for the 2011 general elections.

Benue State Governor, Mr. Gabriel Suswam, has debunked allegations of certificate forgery leveled against him by Power Steering Magazine, describing it as a ‘falsehood and poorly crafted lies”.

THERE were strong indications, yesterday, that nomination of candidate to fly the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, presidential flag in the 2011 presidential elections, will be held in all the 36 states of the country and the nation’s Federal Capital Territory.

WORK has begun on the Port Harcourt Monorail project introduced by the Governor Chibuike Rotimi Amaechi administration in Rivers State

The much awaited trial of six persons accused of complicity in the $ 180 million Halliburton scam could not commence yesterday as scheduled, as the Federal Government failed to produce the accused persons for arraignment before a Federal High Court sitting in Abuja.

A 33,000 litre truck loaded with product suspected to be petrol, yesterday went up in flames in Badagry area of Lagos, burning an unidentified man to death while others sustained varying degrees of burns. A total of 22 vehicles were also affected.

The Nigerian Stock Exchange, NSE, yesterday, placed full suspension on 15 quoted companies for non compliance with its listing requirements on financial reporting for 2008.
The Exchange also placed no fewer than 28 companies on technical suspension following default on financial reporting for 2009.