THE pioneer National Chairman of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, Chief Solomon Lar, said yesterday that talks of an impending northern alliance against the Presidential candidate of the party, President Goodluck Jonathan, only exist in the imagination of its protagonists.

The National Assembly has appropriated an initial sum of N300 billion for infrastructure development in the Niger Delta.

A Lagos State High Court, yesterday, refused the application by Cadbury Nigeria Plc, to stay the execution of a judgment delivered by the court in a suit by the former Managing Director of the company, Mr Olubunmi Oni, which had declared his (Oni) sack, as wrongful.

Close to one year after a blast at the Steel Melting Shop, SMS, department of the Delta Steel Company, DSC, Ovwian/Aladja, Delta State, killed one person, another blast, Monday night, killed another staff of the company, while injuring another.

FOLLOWING the deadlock of his meeting with the Mallam Adamu Ciroma-led Northern Political Leaders Forum, NPLF, President Goodluck Jonathan has intensified efforts towards wooing Emirs and Imams from the North ahead of next month’s Presidential election.

The Federal Government, yesterday, denounced insinuations that it sacked former acting chairman of the Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Commission, ICPC, Professor Uriah Angulu, from office, owing to his unwillingness to prosecute the current administrator of the National Judicial Institute, NJI, Justice Umaru Eri and the incumbent Minister of State for Health, Mr Suleiman Bello, following their alleged complicity in separate fraud cases.

THE Lagos State Waterways Authority LASWA has completed the ridership exercise on users of water transport in the state and disclosedthat more than 175,000 commuters use the water ways on a daily basis.

-DELTA State Governor, Dr. Emmanuel Uduaghan, has promised to build a fertilizer company and a refinery, both to be sited in Ndokwa area of the state.

The Lagos State Government has canceled the monthly environmental sanitation day earlier scheduled for Saturday even as residents were implored to observe the clean up exercise in their domains.

A violent clash broke out at Kota, Omuo-Ekiti in Ekiti East Local Government area of the state yesterday between the ruling Action Congress of Nigeria, ACN, and Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, leading to the death of two people.

A leading member of the National Union of Road Transport Workers, NURTW, Chief Alamu Otegbeye, has warned politicians to stop using members of the union for political thuggery during elections, saying it was against the rules of the union for members to indulge in such act.

Hollywood film legend, Elizabeth Taylor, described by Associated Press, as the violet-eyed film goddess is dead. She died Wednesday,at age 79.

The Nigerian Export Promotion Council, NEPC, has signed a Memorandum of Understanding with the World Bank for five states, in line with its Commercial Agriculture Development Project, CADP.

PRESIDENT Goodluck Jonathan yesterday enjoined leaders of Economic Community of West African States, ECOWAS, to support Nigeria’s bid, once the need arose again at the United Nations Security Council.

Former Abia state governor Orji Uzor Kalu blew his trumpet Wednesday,following Enyimba’s goalless outing in Gabon even as he promised to fight for the team in the next Senate.