THE Presidential Commission of Inquiry into the election violence in Akwa Ibom State and the civil unrest in parts of North which was inaugurated by President Goodluck Jonathan has asked for adequate security for its members to enable them carry out their assignment.

THE Action Committee for Restoration of Oodua Sovereignty led by its President, Right Reverend Emmanuel Bolanle Gbonigi has directed Yoruba graduates to henceforth reject postings to Northern States of the country since the zone has become a “slaughter slab for Yoruba Corpers”.

SENATOR Francis Arthur Nzeribe Wednesday denied reports that there was anxiety with regard to his health, just as he said that he is hale and hearty.

GOVERNOR Adebayo Alao-Akala of Oyo State, yesterday, approved the payment of N18,000 minimum wage for workers in the state.

With only few days to the end of the present senate, a new amendment to the Senate Standing Order that would effectively shut the door against new senators seeking to contest the office of the President of the Senate or the deputy is being introduced.

THE past three weeks have been some of the most difficult for the frames of perception and analysis of Northern Nigeria, in the Southern Nigerian press. Not since the crisis generated by the annulment of the June 12, 1993 election, has Northern Nigeria received the negative, in some cases, crudely racist profiling, as has been visited upon it, in the wake of Nigeria’s last presidential election.

SOLDIERS suspected to be from the Joint Task Force, JTF, on the Niger Delta, Wednesday, stormed a militant camp in Ayakoromor community, Burutu Local Government Area of Delta state and engaged the militants in a gun battle.

Nigeria and Ghana will today relieve their age-long rivalry in football as the Super Eagles and the Black Stars take on each other in the semi final of the ongoing WAFU Cup at the MKO Abiola Stadium, Abeokuta. It will be the second of the semi final fixtures that will come after Togo and Liberia would have settled scores in their match fixed to kick off 2 pm.

Organizers of the high-profile international friendly match between Nigeria and Argentina’s ‘A’ teams have expressed delight with the planning of the Nigeria Football Federation in all aspects of the build-up.

THE national secretariat of Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, has become a Mecca of sort as politicians have continued to intensify lobby ahead of the composition of the leadership of the National Assembly and the Federal Executive Council, FEC.

TO thwart any possible attack by the Boko Haram sect, the Inspector-General of Police, Mr. Hafiz Ringim, has beefed up security in about seven states including Borno, Bauchi, Kaduna, Niger, Plateau and Kano.

Political parties are necessary to modern democratic practice. In Nigeria however, our political parties have sufficiently demonstrated that they could constitute a formidable threat to the overall growth of Nigeria’s democracy. The specifics are: lack of internal democracy, ideological want, party indiscipline and crass opportunism. In a nutshell, our political parties, on a closer assessment, are a reflection of everything wrong with our politics.

Former Nigerian High Commissioner to Britain, Dr. Christopher Kolade and other major stakeholders in the education sector have called for the inclusion of character education in the school curricula.

AS the battle for the Speakership of the Edo State House of Assembly hots up, the leadership of the Action Congress of Nigeria, ACN, in Edo Central senatorial district, has warned against ceding the position to Edo South which produced the Deputy Governor of the state.

The Labour Party in Bayelsa State yesterday petitioned the State Security Service, SSS, over what it described as the refusal of the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, to accede to its request on the release of the copies of the House of Assembly results declared for the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, during the last elections