*Why exclusive interviews with suspects can not be published…
We are unable to publish the interviews with the suspects in the murder of Comrade Olaitan Oyerinde, aide to Governor Adams Oshiomhole of Edo State, as earlier publicised because of some legal implications which have since been brought to our attention. And because of the need for balanced, fair and objective reporting, we present extracts from the presentation of the Police to the House of Representatives Committee on Public Petitions held on 13 February. The presentation was made by Chris Ezike, a deputy commissioner of police, Federal Anti-Robbery Squad, Force CID, Abuja.

When Victoria Udondian’s solo exhibition tagged Open Studio event is opened to the public in April at 1b Olabode Street, Ajao Estate, Lagos, viewers will no doubt become captivated with the artist’s commitment to the reclamation of the power of cloth as both an embodiment of beauty, symbol of power and repository of communal history.

Things Fall Apart is one of the most successful books on the surface of earth and it was China Achebe’s most successful work.In this extract from his latest book, ‘THERE WAS A COUNTRY, the late writer stated that when he was writing the book he did not know whether it would be published or not.

In the last one month, I have been far more excited about being a citizen of Nigeria than before. Thanks to President Goodluck Jonathan who is set to organize the building of one model city in the country. According to the President, the new city will be better than Abuja and it will not experience power outages. It is this announcement that has lifted my spirit high.

This year’s Maintenance, Repair and Overhaul, MRO, conference ended in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia with tales of woes trailing developments in the aviation sector. The parley, which drew experts from all parts of the globe, was unanimous that the aviation sector on the continent was ebbing at a very fast pace, despite the huge potentials that abound for the industry to prosper.

… ’What I handed over was APGA carcass’
Chief Chekwas Okorie, the founding chairman of All Progressive Grand Alliance, APGA. In this interview, he speaks on the controversy over the planned registration of the All Progressive Congress (APC) as a result of the twist, All Peoples Congress, from the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, that another political association has applied to be registered under the same APC acronym. He also comments on the state of affairs in APGA and his new party, the United Peoples Party, UPP. Excerpts:

You voted for Jonathan, not PDP. That’s fine. Now you’ve got Jonathan; the worst PDP imaginable and Alamieyseigha as extra dividend. So, why are millions of My Fellow Countrymen complaining? From late 2010, until the last Sunday to the 2011 Presidential election that year, we drummed the message to ears that were blocked and brains that were turned off. The message was as clear as can be. DON’T VOTE FOR JONATHAN; YOU WILL REGRET IT.

If young people are economically empowered and reoriented to think productively, then Nigeria can be sure to overcome corruption and wastefulness. This is the conviction of Rita Omovbude, the Founder/Project Leader of Street Project, a social enterprise in the heart of transforming the lives of young people.

Award winning novelist and University of Benin Bursar, Dr. May Nwoye, has returned with a new novel, Oil Cemetery.

In his thought-provoking riposte on Nigeria entitled The Trouble with Nigeria, Prof. Chinua Achebe explained that the principal reason for the horrible state of affairs in the country has nothing to do with geography or climate or the kind of food Nigerians eat. Rather, he says, the trouble with Nigeria is the recurrent blizzard of mediocre and corrupt leadership.