Hearing in the trial of a former Director-General of the Nigerian Maritime Administration and Safety Agency, NIMASA, Patrick Akpobolokemi, was, yesterday, stalled at a Federal High Court sitting in Lagos, due to the absence of Governor Juan, the sixth defendant in the charge.

For Mohammed Abdulkareem, a Senior Secondary School 3 student, life as he had known it in the last fourteen years will never be the same again. He was shot multiple times as he backed off from the Shiite headquarters when the Nigerian army invaded the place to drive out members of the sect who had earlier barricaded the Zaria-Sokoto road and prevented the chief of army staff from passing through. He sustained gun shots to his leg which left him with a fractured femur. The gun shot to his back exited though his abdomen leaving a large wound that was encased in a huge plastic when Vanguard visited him on his hospital bed at the Ahmadu Bello University Hospital.

Samuel Ladoke Akintola was born on the 10th of July, 1910 into a family whose attributes were wealth, valour, courage and bravery, and such person must naturally measure up to the family standard- “omo tekun ba bi, ekun ni yoo jo.”- (a young tiger will always live like its forebears). His father was Akintola Akinbola and his mother, Akanke. Ladoke was an enigma of a man, a Baptist Lay Preacher, a Yoruba Fundamentalist, verbally gifted and naturally gregarious Attorney, former Editor of Daily Service, School Teacher, Railway Worker, Scholar, Linguist, street and world wise, brilliant, witty, scholarly and humorous, lived a full blown life for 56 years. July 10, 1910- Jan. 15, 1966.

“Never in my life did I think about robbery as a last resort to ameliorate my impoverished state. But circumstances beyond my control forced me into it.” These were the welcoming words from a suspected member of a six-man robbery gang that had been terrorising petrol station owners in the Northern region. The suspect, Bende Mohammed (38) was arrested recently, alongside four suspected members of the gang by the Inspector-General of Police Special Intelligence Response Team (SIRT).

The House of Representatives has directed the Federal Government to halt the mass retrenchment of Teachers and Workers of University Staff Secondary Schools and Primary Schools across the country. The leadership of Senior Staff Association of Nigerian Universities (SSANU) had on the 24th December 2015, embarked on nationwide industrial action over the planned sack of the teachers and workers.