LAGOS — The Naira, yesterday, appreciated to N296 per dollar in the parallel market due to expectation that the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) will sell autonomous dollar to bureaux de change this week.

There was anxiety in Ado-Ekiti, the Ekiti State capital, yesterday, as a patient on admission at the Federal Teaching Hospital, Ido Ekiti was tested positive to Lassa fever.

Angry reactions have started trailing the sacking of over 3,000 workers in the 19 Imo State government parastatals, agencies and departments.

The Nigerian Press Organization (NPO), comprising the Newspapers Proprietors Association of Nigeria (NPAN), the Nigeria Union of Journalists (NUJ) and the Nigerian Guild of Editors (NGE), has resolved to appeal the December 4, 2015 decision of the Court of Appeal which upturned a Federal High Court Lagos judgment that declared the Press Council Law as unconstitutional, null and void.

Former Super Eagles manager, Christian Chukwu has described as a good start, the team’s 4-1 defeat of the Mena of Niger at the ongoing African Nations Championship (CHAN) in Kigali, Rwanda.

The Nigerian Army yesterday informed that plans had been concluded to rebuild parts of the North East that were destroyed during the fight to outwit insurgents from the war torn region, as part of the next phase of its counter-insurgency operation.

PORT HARCOURT—Elele Town in Ikwerre Local Government Area of Rivers State was unsettled, yesterday, following the recovery of the corpse of a nine-year-old girl, Miss Miracle, who was reported missing.

The Super Eagles yesterday annihilated the Mena of Niger 4-1 in a blistering second half display that saw Abia Warriors striker, Chisom Chikatara bag a hat-trick. By this victory, the Sunday Oliseh tutored team went top of Group C after the opening game between tournament favourites, Tunisia and Guinea ended 2-2.

ILORIN—Pandemonium broke out, yesterday, afternoon at Taiwo, the commercial nerve centre of Ilorin, Kwara State capital, as a notorious political thug, Alhaji Bayo Ajia, was shot dead and cut several times with machetes by four men.

NEARLY four years ago when Donald Trump led a bitter “birther” campaign against Barack Obama who was then running for a second term of office, Republicans were his willing cheerleaders. Then, Trump tried to use the issue to launch his presidential campaign. The loquacious billionaire was all over the place, questioning Obama’s real place of birth, and coming up with bizarre theories about the president being of Kenyan origin. Trump even went as far as claiming that the birth certificate Obama put out online was fake. He promised Americans that he had set up a sort of hit-squad to produce Obama’s real birth certificate that will show that he was born in Kenya, a factor that will disqualify him from running for office.

ABUJA— President Muhammadu Buhari said, yesterday, in Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates, UAE, that Nigeria with the assistance of Multinational Joint Task Force has driven Boko Haram insurgents to “fall-back” position.

ABUJA— Nigeria’s woes in the area of dwindling revenue from crude oil sales is expected to heighten in the next couple of days, as the South African Petroleum Industry Association, SAPIA, yesterday, stated that South Africa would likely stop importing crude oil from Nigeria following the lifting of the sanctions on Iran.

The Multilateral Investment Guarantee Agency, MIGA, the political risk insurance and credit enhancement arm of the World Bank Group, has pledged its support for the Azura-Edo Independent Power Producer, IPP.

Crisis was, yesterday, averted at the head office of Seven Energy, a gas firm in Ikot-Abasi Local Government Area of Akwa Ibom State following the intervention of the Nigeria Police, NNS Jubilee and other security agencies who were on ground to maintain peace and order as hundreds of aggrieved youths embarked on protests against perceived deplorable services of the company to the people.

Inadequate political commitment has been identified as a major barrier to the attainment of adequate financing of healthcare that has led to poor funding of health in general, and primary healthcare in particular. Making the assertion in Lagos, experts from the health and banking sectors, called for adequate funding of the nation’s health sector for efficient healthcare delivery. In lectures to mark the 70th Anniversary of the National Orthopaedic Hospital, Igbobi- Lagos, they stressed the need for an equitable healthcare financing in the country.