A South Sudanese official said seven people were killed on Thursday and many others injured, when unidentified gunmen attacked a UN base in Malakal in South Sudan. Deng Amon, a Native Administration Leader in Malakal, the capital city of Upper Nile State, said that it was a brutal and sudden attack.

Lola stepped out of a board meeting with her bosses to receive a phone call from her oldest son. He had been calling incessantly and she wondered what could have been wrong. It was unlike to call repeatedly. He knew the cardinal rule of sending a message if mummy does not answer after the second ring.

A team of policemen on Thursday dispersed protesting members of the National Association of Nigerian Students (NANS) at the Ministry of Education, Federal Secretariat, Abuja . The policemen manhandled a camera man working for the African Independent Television (AIT), and smashed his camera. NANS President, Mr Tijani Shehu, and no fewer than five other students, were arrested.

EX-AGITATORS under the Third Phase of the Presidential Amnesty Programme of the Federal Government have passed vote of confidence on the Special Adviser to the President on Niger Delta affairs and Coordinator of the Presidential Amnesty Programme, Brigadier General Paul Boro (retd), for effective management of the amnesty programme since he was appointed by President Muhammadu Buhari in 2015.

As I steer at the heap of curriculum vitae before me in my office, I remember, like yesterday, a statement once made by a friend of mine back then. He was an elder, and as a young man still seeking a direction and what to make of my promising future, I always loved sitting close to him; each day with him was always a lesson learnt.