YENAGOA—Kidnappers of Chief W. G. Watson Iti, father of the member representing Brass Constituency II in the Bayelsa State House of Assembly, Mr. Alfred Belimote Watson, have reportedly demanded N70 million ransom for his release.

Lagos—Barely 24 hours after Oniba of Iba, Oba Yushau Oseni regained freedom; the monarch yesterday, recounted his ordeal in the hands of his abductors saying he fainted during his abduction even as he said he was fed with bread and two sachet water for over two weeks.

LAGOS—A 35-year-old man arrested by operatives of Rapid Response Squad, RRS, of Lagos State Police Command has revealed how his pastor’s prayers made him accept a stolen car for sale.

Lagos—For allegedly defrauding a prospective land buyer of N120,000, 79-year-old Titus Olumide was recently sentenced to two years imprisonment by Magi-strate A. T. Omoyele of an Ikeja Magistrate’s Court, sitting at Ogba, Lagos.

Rivers State Government has denied an online report that the governor, Mr Nyesom Wike, is a sponsor of Niger Delta militant group, Niger Delta Avengers, NDA.

A seemingly responsible fiscal plan will become unimplementable, in the modern era, if the underlying monetary indices are out of sync with budget projections. Conversely, the stubborn sustenance of appropriate monetary benchmarks for inflation, cost of funds and exchange rate may still rescue the performance of an otherwise bad budget.

RECENTLY, the World Bank in its Doing Business Reports 2016, ranked Nigeria 124th on the global ‘Ease of Doing Business.’ This was a slight improvement from the 127th position the country occupied on the competitiveness index last year. The slight improvement recorded by the country, came about as a result of the relentless efforts of the Corporate Affairs Commission, CAC, to improve investment climate across the country.

In 2008 economists had predicted a temporary economic crisis. Today we know that there is nothing short-term about the economic slowdown. Our socio-economic system based on unlimited wealth accumulation has worked, and continue to do so, fantastically well for just a few, while hurting the large majority of citizens with poverty, widening inequality and little to no effective democratic participation.

“Banka’ toxic assets may hit N3.0 trillion”. Emeka Anaeto, Economy Editor, VAGUARD, July 17, 2016. When George Santayana, 1863-1952, warned that “Those who do not remember the past [mistakes] are condemned to repeat it” (VANGUARD BOOK p 93), he did not have Nigeria’s banking sector in mind. In fact, that sector had recorded more high profile crooks than any other since the first authentic Nigerian banks were established in the 1950s by individuals whose names would not be mentioned now.

THE basic criterion for working in Nigeria is to either be a miracle worker or magician. The monthly Minimum Wage is N18,000; that is $45 or $1.5 daily. From this monthly salary – the equivalent of a bag of rice – the worker is expected to feed and transport himself to work, feed his family, pay rent and school fees.

Akure—THE Peoples Democratic Party, PDP in Ondo State weekend disowned the business mogul, Jimoh Ibrahim, who collected governorship nomination form from the Ali Modu Sheriff faction of the Party last week in Abuja.

ABUJA — After a brief respite in the month of May, the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation’s, NNPC, financials, weekend, returned to negative, as it announced a deficit of N26.51 billion in its operations for June 2016.

The Federal Government has formally launched a comprehensive housing scheme for federal civil servants under the Federal Integrated Staff Housing (FISH) programme. FISH is an initiative of the Office of the Head of the Civil Service of the Federation (HOS) in partnership with the American Building System International (ABSI).

Red Star Express Plc has disclosed its readiness to pay dividend for the financial year 2015 if approved at the forth coming Annual General Meeting, AGM.

Awka—MANY residents of Awka, Anambra State capital, abandoned what they were doing, weekend, to catch a glimpse of a man, identified as a police officer, and his lover, a member of the Nigerian Security and Civil Defense Corps, NSCDC, allegedly killed by fumes from a power generating set.