A FITTING culmination to his political career in this period was the singular honour that was bestowed on him when he was selected to move in 1958, on the floor of the House of Representatives, the resolution which formally demanded Independence for Nigeria in 1960.

UGHELLI—NIGER Delta ex-militants Phase II leaders, Tuesday, issued a one month ultimatum to the Special Adviser to the President on Niger Delta Affairs, Mr. Kingsley Kuku, to release the unpaid allowances to members of the various camps in the phase or risk another round of crisis in the region.

Managing Director of Riskguard Africa Nigeria Limited Mr. Yemi Soladoye, has warned that reliance on brokers alone to market insurance products on behalf of insurers could lead to market stagnation and unhealthy competition in the sector.

CHAIRMAN of the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, Professor Attahiru Jega, yesterday, raised the alarm over an alleged sponsored campaign of calumny against his person and a planned public display of hostility against the commission by a section of the media.

PORT HARCOURT—AGED Mrs. Beatrice Oduda has asked the Federal Housing Authority, FHA, to refund the N74,000 she committed to the National Housing Programme, NHP, 20 years ago.

A YEAR to the 50th anniversary of the March on Washington and the benediction of Martin Luther King’s “I Have a Dream” speech, America reached for a brush, dipped it in white paint and freshened the racial colour line of which King’s predecessor, W. E. B. Du Bois, spoke so eloquently 60 years earlier in The Souls of Black Folk.

Following the strategy of soft and isolated attacks on innocent citizens in villages in the North by Boko Haram terrorists, the military has launched a manhunt for remnants of the terrorist group.

THERE was drama, yesterday, at Edo State Government House, Benin City, when the father of the stowaway teenage boy, Daniel Oikhena, who was said to be bedridden due to illness, surfaced during a meeting between Governor Adams Oshiomhole and the family.

The Bamanga Tukur-led faction of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP was on the precipice, yesterday, after 58 members of the House of Representatives publicly switched sides to the Kawu Baraje New PDP (nPDP). Four more senators have also joined the earlier 22 senators on the side of Baraje, swelling the number to 26 pro-nPDP senators.

…As SANs back Okorocha on new law …
OWERRI—The palpable anger generated by the abortion law in Imo State is growing by the day as the Bishop of the Anglican Diocese of Egbu, Rt. Rev. Geoffrey Okorafor, has condemned the law, describing it as extremely evil.

UNLESS Nigeria adopts the indigenous, home-grown approach by discouraging imports, her ability to manufacture technological products will remain a potential.

CLOSE to two weeks after Chief Mike Ozekhome, SAN, was kidnapped on the Benin–Auchi highway, his people in Iviukwe community, Agenebode, in Wepa Wano clan of Etsako East Local Government Area of Edo State, are still fasting and praying to God to touch those still holding him in captivity to release him unhurt.

First Bank pensioners have called on management of the bank to help them retrieve members’ funds trapped in the defunct Nigerian Social Insurance Trust Fund, NSITF scheme and the National Housing Scheme, NHS.

*Launches Youth Employment in Agriculture Programme…
ABUJA—President Goodluck Jonathan, Tuesday, promised to provide very low interest loans to farmers. He made the promise while declaring open the 19th Nigerian Economic Summit in Abuja, where he also launched the Youth Employment in Agriculture Programme, YEAP, designed to attract more youths into the agricultural sector.

Niger State governor, Dr. Muazu Aliyu has warned that the crisis rocking the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, has assumed a dangerous dimension and if not swiftly addressed is capable of destroying Nigeria.