Bayelsa State Command of Nigeria Security and Civil Defence Corps, NSCDC, has launched a manhunt for the alleged masterminds of Sunday bombing of a pipeline belonging to Nigerian Agip Oil Company, NAOC, at Ikienghenbiri community in Southern Ijaw Local Government Area of Bayelsa State.

The Special Investigation Panel on Oil Spill and Pollution in Nigeria has commenced sitting in Uyo, Akwa Ibom State, to examine petitions and complaints from communities and organisations on oil spills and environmental degradation.

The youth wing of the pan-Igbo socio-political organisation, Ohanaeze Ndigbo, said it has assessed the performance of governors and other political office holders of South-East extraction and would declare the result of the exercise on May 29.

LET us start with a confession: I frankly do not know the first road contract which the Muhammadu Buhari administration, now about to mark its first anniversary, awarded. But it would not be surprising if it turns out to be the rehabilitation of the terribly failed Ihiala section of the federal road which connects Anambra, Imo and Rivers states and passes through the towns of Okija, Ihiala and Uli in Anambra State; Egbuoma and Oguta in Imo State; and Omoku in Rivers State. Contract for the road construction was awarded in 1982 by the Federal Government following a Federal executive Council (FEC) which Vice President Alex Ekwueme chaired because President Shehu Shagari was out of the country.

A non-governmental organisation, ‘The Senior Citizens Care Foundation,’ has berated the three tiers of government over their insensitive attitude towards the plight of the elderly in the society

FORMER Minister of Finance, Dr. Shamsuddeen Usman, has said the current challenges plaguing the nation’s petroleum sector would have been a thing of the past had late Gen. Sani Abacha not halted the privatization of the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation, NNPC, after taking over power in 1993. Shamsudeen who spoke in Abuja, yesterday, at the inauguration of a study group on giving voice and voting power to retail shareholders in the country, said, “The biggest problem of this country is lack of continuity. What happened was that Abacha came and put a cutlass and just cut it off. The reforms of NEPA, the reforms of NNPC all these NITEL, Nigeria Airways, SwissAir had actually paid for it. By today, we would have had a national carrier. All these reforms that you are seeing would have been concluded long ago.

Former Minister of Finance and Coordinating Minister for Economy under former President Goodluck Jonathan’s administration, Dr Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, said that she will ask a Federal High Court sitting in Lagos, to set aside its judgment, ordering her to “provide information on the spending of the alleged missing N30 trillion which represents some accruable income to the Federal Government during the last four years of the administration of Jonathan.”

The Nedola Initiative Ltd (TNIL), Nigeria’s leading sustainability management firm, today announced commencement of the Nigeria Prize for Patriotism (NPP), a program aimed at celebrating the average Nigerian living the ideals of our heroes past. This initiative which plans to reward the overall winner with 100m prize money is designed to foster national unity.

I may not be the biggest fan of the Attorney General of the Federation (AGF) and Minister of Justice, Mr Malami Abubakar SAN but I cannot but observe that those presently trying to besmear him are doing a desperate job of it.

Yellow fever is a serious disease caused by the yellow fever virus. It is spread through the bite of an infected Aedes mosquito and cannot be spread directly from person to person. It is found in certain parts of Africa and South America. Currently there is a Yellow Fever outbreak in Angola, it is spreading and has so far infected well more than 2,000 people, including imported cases to other countries such as the Democratic Republic of Congo Kenya and China.

Family Planning is the initiation and use of natural or modern contraceptive methods to delay, space or limit future pregnancies. It gives couples the ability to choose the number and space births of their children. Healthy spacing of pregnancies increase healthy outcomes for mother and baby.

The increase in the spate of pipeline vandalism, particularly of gas pipelines in Nigeria’s oil-rich Niger Delta, has compounded the nation’s power supply situation. Generation capacity recently dropped to a new low of about 600 megawatts, MW, thus throwing many areas into darkness, as residents national complain of barely receiving up to three hours electricity supply daily Residents in some localities visited by Vanguard including; Satellite Town, Ijegun, Waterside at Oriade, Tipper Garage, Okokomaiko, Ojo, Ebuta Metta, Idimu, Surulere, Festac, Akoka, Palm groove, Oke arin at Lagos Island, Orile, Amukoko, Ajegunle, Oko-Afo, and Ile-Ipo, both along the Badagry Road, all complained of worsening electricity supply situation.

GOVERNOR Nyesom Wike of Rivers State, yesterday, spoke against hostilities in the Niger Delta region, assuring that governors of the region will support the military to achieve peace in the area.

The Nigerian Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative (NEITI), yesterday, accused the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation, NNPC, and other oil and gas companies of shortchanging the country and failing to remit $4.4 billion and N358.3 billion to the Federation Account in 2013.

Lagos residents yesterday rolled out the drums to meet one of their own, Vice President Yemi Osinbajo, who was a last minute replacement for his boss, President Muhammadu Buhari, on a working visit to the centre of excellence.