Rivers State government,yesterday, alleged that an aircraft, scheduled to fly Governor Rotimi Amaechi and Speaker of the House of Representatives, Rt. Hon. Aminu Tambuwal, among others, out of Akure, Ondo State, was grounded by the aviation authorities on spurious grounds.

Former Minister of Petroleum Resources, Senator Jubril Aminu, yesterday, pleaded with the Presidency and patriotic Nigerians to restrain governors from ruining the country.

Aminu, who spoke in an exclusive interview with Sunday Vanguard, accused the governors of arrogating to themselves roles that were not in the Constitution thereby conferring illegal advantage on themselves to the detriment of majority of Nigerians.

Contrary to reports of death toll of 185 lives and destruction of over 2,000 houses at Baga, Borno State, after Boko Haram gunmen and men of the Multinational Joint Task Force (MJTC) clashed, last week, Senator Maina Ma’aji Lawan, representing Borno North Senatorial District, declared that his two-day visit to the border town revealed 228 fresh graves, 4,000 houses leveled.

Lawan made the “declaration and assessment” of the Baga carnage, Saturday.

It was a historic moment last week, when an African American family of Sculptor Melvin Edwards came to Benin, Nigeria with cremated ash of his late wife, poet Jayne Cortez for final burial. The quiet and symbolic ceremony underlies the eternal connection between Africa at home and Africa in the Diaspora.

ON July 18, 2010, former urbane Redeemed Chriustian Church of God pastor, Ituah Ighodalo inaugurated his own assembly, Trinity House, at the Civic Centre, Victoria Island to end a widerness period that trailed his sack at RCCG.

Culture is a strong instrument for peace, development and national unity. One can see a number of ways in which culture plays an important role in development. First, the culture industry is a dynamic and prosperous sector of the economy that provides fabulous avenues for development through growth and employment.

His manner of interaction even with his members of staff exuded simplicity. None had to fret over his presence, and that alone reshaped my impression of this chartered accountant, politician and businessman whose father is the famous Deltan second republic senator, Senator David Dafinone. The second son in the Dafinone dynasty of chartered accountants, Chief Ede Omueya Dafinone is a partner at Horwath Dafinone, a chartered accounting firm in Lagos. One stupendous aspect of this man’s life is his perception of politics. In 2007, Ede contested under the umbrella of the People’s Democratic Party-PDP-for the Senate seat in Delta Central but lost in the primaries.

The Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination (UTME) was, Saturday, held in Lagos State amid delay in capturing the candidates’ biometric data, malpractices, and shortage of question papers.

The July 14, 2012 Governorship elections in Edo State, were reportedly overwhelmingly won by the incumbent Governor, Comrade Adams Oshiomhole. According to the election results, the Governor won in all the 18 Local Government Areas of the State.

The Vice-Chancellor of the Federal University of Technology, Akure, FUTA, Prof. Adebiyi Daramola, has challenged universities to move away from faculty-centered and lecture-based paradigm to the one where learners are the focus of teaching and learning.