Three weeks ago, friends and well-wishers gathered in a restaurant in Surulere area of Lagos to celebrate the 24th birthday of their friend, Yusuf Olawale Balogun. A week later, the celebrant’s life was cut short, following a bullet from a private guard.

Aerocontractors was, Monday, locked in a battle of wit with members of the Pharmaceutical Society of Nigeria, PSN, following its inability to fly them to their destination.

Joint Task Force, JTF, in the Niger Delta, codenamed Operation Restore Hope, has impounded a vessel, MT ZIA, carrying over 5,000 tons of illegally refined diesel in the Akassa waterway of Bayelsa State. JTF has also promised to take the fight to the sponsors of the illegal business with a view stopping it.

A Federal High Court sitting in Lagos, yesterday, adjourned till November 2, 2011 to rule on whether to stay proceedings in the suit by Fidelity Bank Plc against Chief Raymond Dokpesi, the owner of Daar Communications Limited, operators of Africa Independent Television, AIT, and RayPower FM over an alleged N7billion debt.

IN the bid to enable Nigeria attain the objectives, goals and targets of the National Drug Policy, the Pharmaceutical Society of Nigeria, PSN, is asking the Federal Government to create a National Pharmaceutical Commission.

The Governorship Election Petition Tribunal sitting in Umuahia has adjourned for judgment in the petition brought by Chief Stanley Ohajuruka.

DELTA State University chapter of Academic Staff Union of Universities, ASUU, has said the refusal of the proprietors of public universities across the country to implement the 2009 ASUU/FGN Memo-randum of Under-standing, MoU, may paralyse the university system.

This November, the Czech Republic would have had 50 years of diplomatic relationship with Nigeria. To mark the occasion, the Ambassador of Czech Republic in Nigeria H. E. Jaroslav Siro recently commissioned some projects in Warri, Delta State.

About six suspected pirates, Monday, attacked boat passengers on the Nembe creek in the Nembe Local Govern-ment Area of Bayelsa State with many dispossessed of their cash and valuables.

It is exactly 1,094 days since Comrade Adams Oshiomhole was sworn in as Governor of Edo State, on November12, after retrieving his mandate from Prof Oserheimen Osunbor and it has been a very sweet story for people of the state since then.

A staggering 29,820 cases are pending in Imo State High Court as at September 30, 2011, while 24,724 matters are yet to be decided in the magistrate’s courts.

Youth Movement for the Defence of Democracy, YMDD, has condemned the political crisis in Bayelsa State.

Bayelsa State Government, Monday, flayed the attack on a circulation van belonging to The Nation newspaper, describing the motive of the arsonists as another dimension to orchestrate political attacks aimed at derailing Governor Timipre Sylva’s re-election.

FORMER national president of the Ijaw Youth Council, IYC, Dr. Chris Ekiyor, has called on President Goodluck Jonathan to follow his conscience in taking decisions that affect the country, and not allow “stupid policy formulators” to make his government unpopular.

For the local assembly plants to survive and create jobs for Nigerians, the National Automotive Council (NAC), has proposed a 35 per cent duty differentials between imported fully built unit (FBU) and locally assembled cars.