A notorious kidnapper General Igbudu and five others have been killed in an operation by the Joint Task Force in Ahoada East local government area on Saturday night.

IJAW traditional rulers, yesterday, in Warri, Delta State, said they were not subject to the wishes of a former Federal Commissioner for Information, Chief Edwin Clark, in their efforts to end renewed militancy in the Niger Delta and allied matters.

The first part of this series was concluded and sent to the SUNDAY Editor on Sunday, August 14, 2016. The next day, Monday, two Nigerian newspapers, GUARDIAN and NATION, carried the same story with the heading ‘New York Imam, Assistant shot dead”. The report was undoubtedly sourced from the wire services or the internet. The NATION’s version is hereby reproduced fully.

I am not in the business of “I told you so “but I told you so. Two weeks ago, in my column titled:” Paralysis by analysis, I wrote about the litany of disasters leading to the Olympics in Rio; how athletes were turning to social media to fund their training and flights, how ill-prepared the Nigerian athletes were, how unsupported and ill-equipped they were, how tightly controlled the allowance for the athletes that were as they were allocated $75 daily and told they would get the other half on their return home!

Amid concerns in the political sphere over the request for emergency powers on the economy by the presidency through a proposed executive bill, the private sector operators appear united by contemporary hardship and are in support of drastic and urgent economic measures. However, they were still unsure what to expect in the bill.

The violence unleashed by Boko Haram on communities in Borno State, among other states in the North-East, has left millions of people homeless in the last seven years, thereby forcing government to establish resettlement camps to cater for the displaced. Only last Thursday, Borno State government had to suspend ‘“the central feeding of the Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs)” following their protest in Maiduguri, the state capital.

“But for constituency projects, many rural communities would never have known about the existence of the Federal Government let alone benefitting from budgets. Thanks to the mechanism of the projects which ensures that every year projects such as solar powered bores(sic) [bore holes], hand pumps, school infrastructure, dispensaries, skills acquisition centres, poverty alleviation (sic), etc. are implemented, however poorly the implementation” (bold and italics added).

A former Resident Electoral Commissioner (REC), Mr Mike Igini, was in the delegation that recently assessed the preparation of Ghana ahead of its December general elections. Igini speaks on the mission.

Self-acclaimed Lover Boy, Felix Lebarty, who shot into national prominence in the 80s, with his debut album titled, “Lover Boy”, is a living testimony of how not to live a life of celebrity. While he was the man of the moment, he fathered 17 children from different women. But since realizing his past mistakes after he embraced Christ and dumped his old lifestyle few years ago, Lebarty is currently enjoying his marriage with the mother of his first-four children (two boys and two girls), Rosemary

Last week Saturday, I had the privilege of serving as guest speaker at the installation of the President of the Rotary Club of Port Harcourt Airfield where I drew attention to the need for Nigerian politicians to emulate Rotarians while seeking elective office.

Jesus says: “Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that comes from the mouth of God.” (Matthew 4:4). Many take this to mean there is life in the scriptures. But Jesus says different. He tells the Jews: “You diligently study the scriptures because you think that by them you possess eternal life. These are the scriptures that testify about me, yet you refuse to come to me to have life.” (John 5:39-40).

Every minute, 380 women become pregnant. Some time, 190 women face unplanned or unwanted pregnancy, 110 women experience a pregnancy related complication and another 40 women have unsafe abortion. On average, 116 women die every day in Nigeria from complications of pregnancy, labour or childbirth. Is there no end to these needless troubles?

Governor Ifeanyi Ugwuanyi of Enugu State yesterday, declared the Sliver Jubilee celebration of Enugu State, created on August 27, 1991, a solemn moment for the people of the state following last Thursday’s murder of a Catholic Seminarian, Lazarus Nwafor, by herdsmen at Attakwu, in Nkanu West, Local Government Area of Enugu State.

18,000 women are being taken out of poverty in Jigawa State courtesy of a goat multiplication farming programme introduced by Governor Muhammed Badaru Abubakar. The governor is replicating an initiative used by many countries in Africa, Asia and South

So, let us try to consider as dispassionately as we can, on the basis of available data, whether the first military coup was indeed an Igbo coup, as alleged by some writers such as Isama Elaigwu, in Gowon: The Biography of a Soldier-Statesman and Karl Maier, in This House has Fallen Nigeria: in Crisis. But before we do that, certain basic points must be highlighted.