Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez lost his battle with cancer Tuesday, silencing the leading voice of the Latin American left and plunging his divided oil-rich nation into an uncertain future.

Inter Milan ace Joel Obi and Shola Ameobi are likely to make the 25-man Eagles squad for a 2014 World Cup qualifier against Kenya later this month.

For suspected pipeline vandal, Imeh Etim, 27, only the urgent intervention of the General Overseer of the Deeper Life Bible Church, Pastor William Kumuyi, can rescue him from his present predicament. Ime who said he has been a member of Pastor Kumuyi’s church for the past 13 years wants the cleric to use his good office to save him from an uncertain fate. Imeh was arrested recently with two of his siblings, Bassey, 25 and Effiong, 32 and a family friend, Samuel Christopher, at Ojo area of Lagos during a raid by agents of the anti-vandals department of the Nigeria Security and Civil Defence Corps, NSCDC, Lagos State Command, in connection with pipeline vandalism.

PATIENTS requiring blood transfusion services at the Lagos University Teaching Hospital, LUTH, Idi Araba, Lagos have been warned to desist from patronising commercial blood donors. The warning came on the heels of the arrest of a suspected tout within the hospital premises while attempting to supply a blood donor to a desperate patient in need of blood.

IT will be difficult to find enthusiastic, independent support for the continued existence of State Electoral Commissions. But they will continue to exist because they serve very powerful interests that have nothing to do with the growth and development of the democratic system.