AHEAD the April 20, local government area elections in Edo State, the leadership of Congress for Progressive Change, CPC, in the state has concluded plans to hold talks with the leadership of Action Congress of Nigeria, ACN, in the state with a view to presenting consensus candidates in the 18 councils of the state.

PORT HARCOURT—Chief of the Air Staff, CAS, Air Marshal Alex Badeh, has assured that officers and men of the Nigerian Air Force, NAF, on peace mission in Mali would do the nation proud.

BARELY 72 hours after Edo State Independent Electoral Commission, EDSIEC, released the time-table for the conduct of elections into the 18 local government areas in the state, Director of Publicity and Strategy of Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, in Edo State, Mr. Okharedia Ihimekpen, has called for the boycott of the elections.

Abuja — Unmindful of the unending opposition to his seat, the Speaker of the House of Representatives, Aminu Tambuwal, yesterday, began moves to consolidate his hold on the leadership of the lower chambers of the National Assembly.

LAGOS — Chairman of Bi-Courtney Highway Services, Dr Wale Babalakin, declared missing, Wednesday, by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC, was, yesterday, arraigned before a Lagos High Court sitting in Ikeja, alongside Alex Okon and three others, on a 27-count charge bordering on money laundering.

Stakeholder Democratic Network, SDN, a pressure group in the Niger Delta, has frowned at the priority given by the Federal Government to security against crude oil theft to the detriment of the needed environmental protection action against oil spillages in the region.

LAGOS — The Action Congress of Nigeria, ACN, has lambasted the ruling People’s Democratic Party, PDP, for allegedly calling its National Chairman,Chief Bisi Akande, an ex-convict, saying a political prisoner is different from a criminal convict.

Following the intervention of the Honorable Minister of Sports and Chairman of the National Sports Commission, NSC, Mallam Bolaji Abdullahi the crisis over the title right of the Nigeria Premier League (NPL) has been finally resolved.

When the mother of the Minister for the economy/Minister of Finance was snatched by kidnappers later in 2012, there really was no telling what the outcome could be. The outpourings of goodwill expressed by friends and colleagues of professor Kamene Okonjo was almost matched by the avalanche of criticism of the minister, who was thought to be one of those responsible for the hike in petrol prices of January 2012, occasioned by the partial removal of existing government subsidies.

Federal Government, yes-terday, inaugurated steering committee that will develop the country’s Code of Corporate governance.

ABUJA — The House of Representatives, yesterday, passed a motion asking theFederal Government to name a federal institution after Nigeria’s first Finance Minister, Chief Festus Okotie-Eboh.

ANAMBRA State government has debunked insinuation in some quarters that the recent shutdown of illegal markets and removal of illegal structures at Bridge Head end of Onitsha-Enugu expressway in Onitsha was targeted at non indigenes.

Admire their talents, envy them for daring to be what we can’t. When they were snatched from us by death, we felt a personal loss and showed an unwillingness to let go. And so, we transform these mere human beings into musical icons whose stars often shine in death even more brilliantly than in life. WG imagines what they would have become today if they had lived…

The majority of the men and women who thronged the meeting of the BMT Youth Organisation in Ibadan last Tuesday were obviously not youths. Men and women with some obviously grandparents could not have passed for youths. But it was convenient for them given that they came to hear out Alhaji Sabo Mohammed, the national chairman of the BMT youths and his entourage. They were also being recruited, perhaps without their knowledge, as foot soldiers into the war that has broken out between the incumbent president, Dr. Goodluck Jonathan and his benefactor and predecessor Chief Olusegun Obasanjo.

WARRI—AYAKOROMO community in Burutu Local Government Area of Delta State has banned ex-militants, who hail from the locality from participating in community affairs.