Boko Haram insurgents attacked a market outside the key northeast Nigerian city of Maiduguri, local people who witnessed the incident told AFP on Saturday

The North Central zonal rally, organised by the Transformation Ambassadors of Nigeria (TAN), was forced to a halt as the podium where dignitaries were seated collapsed with many of the dignitaries sinking with the steel make-shift podium.

Aniete Okon, a second republic senator from Akwa Ibom State, is pioneer National Publicity Secretary of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP). Okon was also a member of the just concluded National Conference. In this Interview, he takes a swipe at the controversial creation of more polling units by the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, which overwhelmingly favours the North

Following public outcry about coach Stephen Keshi’s handling of the two African Nations Cup qualifiers, Sports Minister Tammy Danagogo has left the Nigeria Football Federation to decide who will handle the Super Eagles for their remaining matches.

Concerns from stakeholders have continued to mount over the decision of the Federal Government to review the resumption date for private and public schools to September 22 due to Ebola Virus Disease, EVD. To many parents, the decision is not in the best interest of children. They warned that the reopening of schools, which will involve about 80 million Nigerians adolescents, pupils and teachers, is a high-risk strategy.

At the just concluded National Conference on Committee for Foreign Policy disclosed that there are over 16,300 Nigerians in foreign jailhouses for drug related offences. This figure, as announced by a delegate, the former Minister of Education, Prof. Ihechukwu Madubuike, quoting the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA), was not such a suprise to Nigerians at home and abroad. Of this number, we were told 3,719 Nigerian women are in Canada alone.

At least 17 yet to be identified bodies were, yesterday, recovered from the rubbles of the collapsed six-storey building under construction in Synagogue of All Nations Church, Ikotun-Egbe, Lagos, while 123 victims were rescued.

The attempt, last Wednesday, by Professor Attahiru Jega, National Chairman, Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, to explain away the inherent incongruity in allocating Polling Units, PUs, to states of the federation with less probability of having more voting population, an exercise that should have been carried out relying on field data, only served to further pour cold water on the Chairman of Nigeria’s election management body.

A nightmare occurs when an invisible person presses us down on the bed while we are sleeping. Literally, it means someone rides us like a mare at night. According to European myth and legend, a nightmare is a demon or evil spirit that harasses and suffocates people in their sleep.

Professor Rufai Ahmed Alkali, a political scientist from Gombe State, is the immediate past National Publicity Secretary of the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) and the Special Adviser to President Goodluck Jonathan on Political Matters. Alkali, in this interview, speaks his mind on his new office, support groups for Jonathan ahead of 2015, the opposition parties and the 2014 National Conference, among other issues