SECOND Republic Senator and South South leader, Senator Francis Okpozo, yesterday, warned Northern leaders against taking actions capable of destabilising the country, saying that the emergence of former Vice President Atiku Abubakar as the Northern consensus candidate was an attempt to ridicule the integrity of Nigerians.

The House of Representatives and Securities and Exchange Commission, SEC, yesterday, disagreed over claims by the legislators that the operations of the regulator were shrouded in secrecy.

LEGISLATIVE activities at the National Assembly, Abuja, were yesterday delayed for hours by protesting staff of the National Assembly Service Commission due to non-payment of salaries and other allowances.

ANAMBRA High Court, sitting in Ekwulobia, has sacked two parallel executive committees of the Peoples Democratic Party,PDP, in Anambra State.

EMBATTLED former militant leader, “General” John Togo, who had come under fire from some of his colleagues for returning to the creeks after accepting amnesty last year from the Federal Government, yesterday, said he was not a criminal as some of his former militant colleagues had alleged

Crawford University’s second convocation last Friday at Igbesa, Ogun State, provided the platform for the Pro-chancellor, a seasoned university administrator, to look at the options for and against establishing six federal universities in the country.

APPARENTLY, ours is a chicken republic in which the chicken is greater than the republic. We have discovered one good thing about the land, though in whatever you do, you have a choice.

I ONCE watched an interesting documentary on National Geographic Wild channel, which brought home to me the elders’ saying: “No matter how well you treat a wild animal it will still have its eyes on the bush”.

About seven aspirants from Oji River Local Government Area of Enugu State, vying to represent Aninri, Awgu and Oji-River federal constituency at the National Assembly in the forthcoming 2011 elections, have rejected the Professor S. Ukpabi-led committee set up by the Greater Awgu Forum, a socio-political group, to ascertain which of the three local governments should produce the next candidate for the election.

Angry protests have continued to trail the gruesome murder in Owerri, of the traditional ruler of Ibeamaukwu autonopmous community, Umunakanu, Ehime Mbano local government area, Eze Emeka Njoku, in bizarre circumstances.

Amateur Boxing in Nigeria has gone under chiefly because the house leadership is a far cry from the one of 18 years ago, under which was effectively interpreted the full meaning of Control, components of which includes monitoring, organization and superv-ision

THE political mantra not to rule out anything in the political terrain is an abiding lesson to all. Who would have imagined it at the peak of his tirades against the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in 2007 that the same Atiku Abubakar would today be fighting the battle of his life to obtain the ticket of that “evil” party? Or would one have envisaged Chief Orji Uzor Kalu sneaking in and out of the nest of killers he once claimed to have woven a plot to kill him?

THE Emeritus Catholic Bishop of Issele-Uku, Rt Rev Emmanuel Otteh, has said that the decision of Governor Peter Obi to return schools taken over by government after the Nigerian civil war to their original owners would help reduce the ills in the society.

Fola Badmus, an indigene of Ondo State has been in dire need of help for the past one year. An overseas-based business man for many years, the cause of his predicament appears to be his decision to return home and settle in his dear country.

Women in Agriculture Association, WIAA, has urged the Federal Government to compel banks disbursing the N200 billion loan to farmers, to set aside part of the fund to finance women farmers in the country.