Thousands of customers of two first generation banks in Edo State were stranded, yesterday, following the sealing up of the banks by Edo State Government officials over alleged withholding of taxes and refusal by the banks to remit Pay As You Earn, PAYE.

TO the average Nigerian who dreads the disruption petroleum products scarcity inflicts on him; it does not matter whether Nigeria imports the products from Zinder in Republic of Niger or Zinguichor in Senegal. The key thing is availability.

NO fewer than 50 heavy duty trucks were yesterday set ablaze at the Benue Cement Company, BCC, in Gboko following a sharp disagreement between two factions of the trailer drivers’ union operating within the factory site.

The declining fortune of the naira at the official foreign exchange market persisted yesterday as it lost 34 kobo at the bi-weekly foreign exchange auction.

Three armed men yesterday morning invaded the Anthony village home of the Publisher of Vanguard Newspapers, Mr. Sam Amuka and carted away some cash and valuables worth millions of naira.

United States Ambassador to Nigeria, Mr. Terence McCulley, yesterday, identified corruption, poor economic growth, erratic power supply as well as non-functional public health and education systems as some challenges facing Nigeria.

I PARTICIPATED in those meetings because we were friends. He was my friend; I will say a good friend. The only thing that went wrong was that the election was annulled. It did not affect our personal relationship. At best, I will say we had an ideological difference from that point.
People hold you responsible for many of the problems the country faces – the annulled 1993 election, corruption, and the economy.

A pocketful of protesters yesterday stormed the National Assembly Complex protesting that the embattled President of the Appeal Court Justice Ayo Salami should be given a fair hearing as the Chief Justice of the Federation Justice Aloysius Katsina-Alu cannot be a judge over his own matter.

EVERY Government defines her own programmes at its inception, just as it may face certain challenges. In Borno state, one cannot say the times are too good given the crisis occasioned by the Boko Haram insurrection. Whereas others can afford the luxury of playing politics with the situation, we are worried that our brothers have taken up arms against their fellow kinsmen. We have been on the edge of our seats, striving hard to succeed in the face of this particular challenge. Governor Kashim Shettima’s determined efforts to succeed in the face of all odds have spurred us into working to rescue Borno from this strange hold.

Evidently, former President Olusegun Obasanjo has a lot going for him at the political arena. One may be tempted at times to reckon that he may have wasted his years in the military, when he should have enrolled in politics from the very beginning.