MEDIA icons converged on Lagos to interrogate Nigeria’s leadership question in celebration of renowned columnist and co-founder of Newswatch Magazine, Mr. Ray Ekpu, who clocked 70, yesterday.

CALABAR- EXPERTS, community leaders and a nongovernmental organization for environmental development and information delivery, operating under the auspices of Rainforest Resource and Development Centre, RRDC, have censured the governor of Cross River State, Prof Ben Ayade, over an alleged high spate of deforestation in parts of the state by his administration under the guise of constructing a 276- km super highway.

CHURCH of Nigeria, Anglican Communion, Diocese of Aguata, has called on the Federal Government to leave issues of party politics and address the economic crisis and the suffering of Nigerians.

YENAGOA—NIGER DELTA Revolutionary Crusaders, NDRC, one of the agitating groups in the Niger Delta region, yesterday, dissociated itself from the 21st Century Youths of Niger Delta and Agitators with Conscience, another militant assembly, which called off the existing ceasefire between Niger Delta militants and Federal Government, last Wednesday.

ADO-EKITI—THE Election Petition Tribunal sitting in Ado Ekiti, yesterday, granted the All Progressive Congress, APC,  order to check election materials and results from the just concluded July 14 governorship election in the state. 

Lagos—The Police, yesterday, arraigned a 24-year-old barber, David Jude, who allegedly abducted and raped a 16-year-old girl, before a Lagos Magistrate’s court sitting at Ajegunle.

A youth group, Ethnic Nationalities Youth Presidents of Nigeria, ENYPN, has cautioned the presidency and the national assembly members against heating up the polity over the defection of the Senate President, Dr. Bukola Saraki and some governors from the ruling All Progressives Congress, APC, and warned them against truncating the nation’s democracy.

OPERATIVES of Kogi State Police Command have arrested five suspects said to be behind the kidnap of a traditional ruler, a catholic cleric and the recent spate of robberies on Okene-Lokoja Road.

SENATE caucus of Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, has begun moves to replace Minority Leader of the Senate, Senator Godswill Akpabio (Akwa Ibom North-West) and regretted not getting rid of him earlier.

NATIONAL Emergency Management Agency, NEMA, yesterday said it was working to collaborate with insurance companies to mitigate the effect of disaster in the South-East.

No fewer than 1,602 Muslim pilgrims from Bauchi State are expected to perform the 2018 Hajj in Saudi Arabia.

Nigeria’s rig count for the month of June showed a slight decline of minus one, having recorded 32 as against 33 recorded in May, at a time the 14-member Organisation of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC), showed a decline of minus 13.

MAJOR political stakeholders in Isoko North Local Government Area, Delta state under the aegis of Unity Group have thrown their weight for the re- election of the State Governor, Senator  Ifeanyi Okowa in 2019.

A team of foreign investors from the United States of America, yesterday, promised to ensure the revitalization of the moribund premier Cement Company, popularly called NIGERCEM located in Nkalagu in Ishielu local government area of Ebonyi State.

ENWANG- MORE  than 4,000 patients from  Enwang, Ebughu, Effiat, Uda and Udesi communities  in Mbo Local Government Area, Akwa Ibom State, received free medical treatment from a team of medical experts  sponsored by Oriental Energy Resources Limited, an indigenous oil firm at the Primary Healthcare, Enwang, headquarters of the council,  recently.