MERS coronavirus infections have soared in Saudi Arabia ahead of the hajj pilgrimage, forcing the closure of a major hospital’s emergency ward in Riyadh and killing three people, officials and the press said.

Against the background of the stretching arrears of salaries owed public workers in Osun State, Alhaji Lai Mohammed, the spokesman of the All Progressives Congress, APC , during an interactive session with the Editorial Board of Vanguard gave reasons why the state has found itself in dire straits asserting that the party cannot in any way be ashamed of the governor , Ogbeni Rauf Aregbesola, or his record of performance.

Awka—ABOUT 150 ad-hoc staff of the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, during the 2015 general elections in Anambra State, yesterday, besieged the Commission’s secretariat in Awka, demanding their unpaid allowances. Some of the staff complained that while some of them received the first tranche, others had not received anything since the March 28 and April 11, 2015 elections.

Authorities of the Nigerian Army on Wednesday, said it had identified the soldiers who violated the rights of a member of the public in Mararaba, Nasarawa state, on Aug. 8.

There was palpable fear among the staff and management of the Nigerian Immigration Service, NIS, yesterday over how the ISIS chief, Ahmed Al Assir, got entry visa in Lebanon to visit Nigeria.

A suspected member of a syndicate vandalising pipelines of Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation, NNPC, Jamiu Ajani, said yesterday he did not know selling petrol obtained from the act amounted to crime.

As the process of choosing a new Ooni of Ife gains momentum, Prince Adeyemi Adeoye Aderibigbe Ologbenla who is from one of the ruling houses in Ile-Ife, has advised all stakeholders in the selection process of a new monarch to be wary of those jostling for the title, noting that most of them are not from any of the lineages that produce kings in the town.

President Muhammadu Buhari, yesterday, in Abuja directed the management of the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation, NNPC, to work more closely with the indigenous oil producers to boost domestic refining capacities.

Nigeria earned N2.512 trillion from the export of petroleum products in three months, between April and June 2015, according to data released Wednesday, by the National Bureau of Statistics, NBS.

There were indications that public sector funds component of banks’ deposit base may have started to shrink, raising fears that it will affect the nation’s economy. This is as the overall cash inflow from the system in the month of August, so far, is about N440 billion compared to about N613 billion in the corresponding period of last month.