Muhammad Ali’s life will be celebrated with a traditional Islamic prayer service after thousands of tickets were snapped up for the boxing great’s funeral.

The presiding Judge of the Federal High Court, Owerri Division, Justice A.I. Allagoa, has adjourned to July 4 and 5, 2016, for the adoption of written addresses on the tax forgery suit filed against Governor Okezie Ikpeazu by a chieftain of the Peoples’ Democratic Party, PDP, in Abia State, Sir Friday Nwosu.

Renowned constitutional lawyer, Prof. Ben Nwabueze, SAN, yesterday, in his ancestral home Atani in Ogbaru Local Government Area of Anambra state, said the only solution to the numerous problem facing Nigeria was the convocation of a national conference of ethnic nationalities, setting up of a truth and reconciliation commission and the restructuring of the federal system.

Following last week’s launch of the clean-up exercise of Ogoniland in Rivers State by the Federal Government, the United Nations Environment Programme, UNEP, has said that it will take between 25 to 30 years for the natives of the degraded land to enjoy a fresh and clean environment.

THE management of Federal Polytechnic, Auchi, Edo State has set up an eight-man committee to investigate the immediate and remote causes of the mayhem in the polytechnic perpetrated last week during the students protest.

Tributes for Nigerian legend Stephen Keshi, who passed on in the early hours of Wednesday at the age of 54 are still running strongly, with President Muhammadu Buhari, acting President Yemi Osinbajo, Governor Ifeanyi Okowa of Keshi’s Delta State and former NFF president Dominic Oneya among those who have mourned the elegant maestro.

Organised labour has described as unacceptable the recent trend of mass retrenchment of workers in the banking sector, saying the development was making working in the industry dangerously precarious.

Given Governor Ayodele Fayose’s infatuations with President Muhammadu Buhari, it is a surprise to many that the former army general now at the helm of affairs of the country has largely ignored him. Well, not so if the governor’s leading supporters and aides are to be believed. Indeed, if any, the All Progressives Congress, APC, led federal administration is tightening the noose around the Ekiti State governor, some of the partisans of Mr. Fayose told Vanguard during a courtesy visit to Vanguard last weekend.

D CHARLES Ikedikwa Soeze was a quintessential statesman, patriot, paragon of altruism, Catholic communicant, administrative guru. Gentle in manner, resolute in action, an impeccable exemplification of contentment and like August Caeser, he met Rome (The World) of bricks, but left it of marble.

The Department of State Services may invite the Chief of Staff to Ekiti State governor, Mr Dipo Anisulowo, a lawyer; Deputy Speaker of the State House of Assembly, Segun Adewumi; the Chairman of the House Committee on Information, Gboyega Aribisogan; the Chairman of the House Committee on Health, Dr. Samuel Omotosho; and the Special Assistant to the Governor on Public Communications and New Media, Lere Olayinka, to explain their role in the letter addressed to President Xi Jinping of China, asking the latter to stop a loan of $2 billion to Nigeria ahead of President Muhammadu Buhari visit to China last April.