I HEARD with great shock, sadness, and disappointment the news of a statement issued on Sunday, June 5, 2016, by the Special Adviser (Media and Publicity) to Mr. President, informing the general public that President Muhammadu Buhari GCFR will proceed on a 10 day medical vacation to London from Monday, June 6, 2016, during which period he is billed to see an E.N.T. specialist for a persistent ear infection, based on a recommendation for further evaluation said to have been advanced by Mr. President’s Personal Physician and an E.N.T. specialist in Abuja.

FOR the second time in less than two months, the rumoured death of former military president, Gen. Ibrahim Babangida has once again rented the air through some social media postings but with a swift reaction from his Hill top residence in Minna, Niger state that he is still alive, hail and hearty. One of the social media sites had, yesterday, indicated that the former military president had died in Germany and that he would be buried in Minna his home town today by 2pm.

The very essence of fasting, according to the Holy Quran, is piety (taqwa). Allah Subhanahu-wa-Taala said: “O you who believe! Fasting is prescribed for you, as it was prescribed upon those before you in order that you may attain taqwa,” Qur’an 2:183.

The Abuja Division of the Federal High Court, yesterday granted bail to former President Goodluck Jonathan’s cousin, Robert Azibaola, and his wife, Stella, to the tune of N1billion.

The families of eight people killed by Nigerian security forces hunting Boko Haram insurgents in Abuja have been awarded $200,000 compensation each, the West African bloc ECOWAS said Wednesday.

NIGERIA Employers’ Consultative Association, NECA, yesterday lambasted the Minister of Labour and Employment, Senator Chris Ngige, over threat to banks and telecoms firm that the Federal Government would be forced to withdraw their operating licences should they continue to breach the directive to halt further retrenchment of workers, pending stakeholders meeting next month.

Something is not right in our security arrangement and anyone that is sincere will admit it. It doesn’t require one being a security expert to gauge or have a sense of what is amiss.

Policemen attached to Iponri Division in Lagos State have arrested a 32-year-old fake policeman who extorts money from commercial bus drivers in Costain area, raking in N10,000 daily. The suspect, Austine Okwuoke, clad in a police vest and a black trouser, was said to have been into the shady act for close to six months until luck ran against him yesterday.

Governor Wille Obiano of Anambra State yesterday pledged to offset the hospital bills of some Biafra agitators injured during the celebration to mark the 49th anniversary of declaration of Biafra nation and Biafra day.

Within a space of one week, five Nigerians were gruesomely murdered by mobs protesting what they called “blasphemy” offences.

Contrary to some newspaper reports yesterday alleging that Fulani herdsmen are back to Nimbo in Uzo-Uwani local government area of Enugu state and that five of their women have been raped, the traditional ruler of the community which was attacked on April 25, 2016, Igwe John Akor and Enugu state Police Command said in Enugu that herdsmen are not back to the community.

The Federal Government has said it would issue $1 billion Eurobond in the third quarter of this year towards its securing of $3 billion loan from the World Bank and African Development Bank.

FORMER Executive Secretary, National Universities Commission, NUC, Professor Peter Okebukola has said that Nigerian universities deviated from the initial agreement NUC had with Vice-Chancellors in 2004 when it introduced post-UTME to screen candidates via oral interview and written essay. Just as the Deputy Director, Distance Learning Centre, University of Ibadan, UI, Professor Oyesoji Akanmi also stated that scrapping post-UTME is against the university autonomy, saying, ‘’ The development will place admission burden on the 40 federal universities.”

The most celebrated court case in Yenagoa and perhaps in all of Bayelsa State this year has been the ongoing trial of Yunusa Dahiru, alias Yellow, the alleged abductor of 14 years old Ese Oruru.

The Economic Community of West African States, ECOWAS, court has imposed a fine of $3.3 million on Nigeria over the extra-judicial killing of eight citizens in the Apo District of Abuja, Federal Capital Territory.