Days after residents of Jos rejoiced over peaceful Christmas and New Year celebrations which they saw as signaling a gradual return of peace to Plateau State, gunmen attacked a village throwing the state into mourning.
By Taye Obateru and Marie-Therese Nanlong

It was the most horrifying experience of my life. Battered,Blended pepper in my private part, I didn’t know I would survive

The convoy actually came to a halt in the sunny afternoon despite the fuming blast of the siren, a development that prompted the deputy governor’s ADC, Inspector Gaya Mark, to jump out of one of the vehicles to remove a motorcyclist turning in the middle of the road to pick a passenger oblivious of the convoy. Dramatically, as he dragged the Okada rider off the road, he slumped. And before he could be rushed to the Civil Service Clinic, at the end of the road, Gaya had given up the ghost. The ADC was believed to have died of cardiac arrest.

Former President Olusegun Obasanjo explains, in his letter, dated January 7, 2014, to the PDP National Chairman, Alhaji Bamanga Tukur, why he is withdrawing from the ruling party. The letter reads: “ While I believe that a good and truly national political party must be a microcosm of the nation in its membership, made up of all sorts of characters from near-saints to near-satan, I also believe that on no account should a known habitual criminal that is wanted abroad to face criminal charges levelled against him be extolled as a political leader in a respectable and wholesome nation-building political party.

The Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, says it is still possible to conduct election in the North-eastern next year.
INEC Chairman, Prof Attahiru Jega, who earlier declared that election would not be conducted in any state under emergency rule in 2015, said, yesterday, that he did not foreclose election in the six states of Adamawa, Taraba, Bauchi, Yobe, Borno and Gombe.