GOVERNOR Adebayo Alao-Akala of Oyo State has told the new General Officer Commanding, 2 Mechanised Division, Nigeria Army, Ibadan, Brig.-Gen. Muhammed Abubakar to regard activities of members of the National Union of Road Transport Workers, NURTW, near the barrack as illegal.

COMBINED security operatives, yesterday, intercepted 13 containers laden with arms and ammunition including rocket launchers, catridges and hand grenades at the A P Moller Terminals in Apapa port.

* Please note that the story below contains a gory photograph.
A brazen attempt by heavily armed robbers to raid the Zenith Bank in Ijebu-Ode was foiled by policemen who killed two of them and arrested three persons of the hoodlums.

NATIONAL Chairman of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, Dr. Okwesilieze Nwodo was, yesterday, enmeshed in a fresh crisis after members of the National Working Committee, NWC, rose against him alleging high-handedness and usurpation of the NWC’s power.

The House of Representatives adhoc Committee on the Review of the 1999 Constitution has approved thirty post-election days before the handover date in 2011, just as it has adopted the 150 days recommended by the Muhammed Uwais’ Electoral Review Committee, to allow time for judicial pronouncements on election litigations.

THERE were indications, yesterday, that the rejection of amendments to the Electoral Act, 2010 by the National Assembly might have been fuelled by two Presidential aspirants on the platform of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP.

A faction of the Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger-Delta, MEND, led by ex-militant leader, “General” John Togo, weekend, alleged that some Northern leaders have, indeed, infiltrated the militant group with a view to causing mayhem in the country, and warned that if anything happened to President Gooduck Jonathan, the group would lend a hand to dismember the nation.

The four presidential aspirants of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) jostling for the consensus candidacy of the north ahead of the 2011 polls are facing fresh hurdles.

The authorities handling of Thursday’s arraignment of seven persons in connection with the Independence Day bomb blasts has sparked angry reactions from the bar and the civil society which say the development is anti-democracy.

There were indications at the weekend that federal government has concluded plans to acquire 4 new aircraft for the Presidential fleet at a cost of about $200million to replace aging aircraft in the fleet whose maintenance cost as a result of old age, with some of them having spent 22years, is gulping huge foreign exchange annually.

STATE Security Service, SSS, yesterday, arraigned Charles Okah, younger brother to the embattled ex-leader of the Movement for the Emancipation of Niger Delta, MEND, Mr. Henry Okah, his son, and five other accused persons before a Chief Magistrate Court sitting in Abuja over their alleged involvement in the October 1 twin-bomb blasts.

Charles Okah, younger brother to the embattled ex-leader of the Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta, MEND, Mr. Henry Okah, his son, and five other accused persons were Wednesday dragged before a Chief Magistrate Court sitting in Abuja by heavily armed operatives of the State Security Services, SSS, over their alleged involvement in the October 1 twin-bomb blast that marred Nigeria’s independence day anniversary celebrations

CHAIRMAN Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, Prof Attahiru Jega has assured that his electoral body would come up with steps to deliver a credible election next year.

THE Senate, yesterday, threw out the proposed amendment to the Electoral Act, 2010, to extend the time line for the 2011 elections as requested by the Independent National Electoral Commission, prompting fears that the conduct of the 2011elections could be in jeopardy

Governor Babatunde Fashola of Lagos State has stressed the need for the Federal Government to review downwards the existing tariffs on imported raw materials for the manufacture of transformers in Nigeria.