DELEGATES at the National Conference, yesterday, voted for rotation of Presidency between the North and South and among the six geo-political zones. The delegates, however, shot down a proposal for a single term of six years for the President.

More than 50 people, including 16 members of the Vigilante outfit, also known as Civilian JTF, were killed, yesterday when a Peugeot 505 saloon car conveying charcoal and wired with Improvised Explosive Devices, IEDs, exploded in the busy Monday Market in Maiduguri, the Borno State capital. About 68 others were seriously injured.

Almost three months after Boko Haram terrorists abducted more than 200 schoolgirls in Chibok, Borno State, the military announced, yesterday, that it has arrested one of the sect’s leaders, who was one of the abductors.

Gunmen suspected to be members of Boko Haram Islamic sect, yesterday, attacked some communities in Chibok and Biu local government areas of Borno State, killing no fewer than 51 people. Those killed were mostly Christian worshippers. Five churches including Cocin, EYN and Deeper Life Bible Church in Kwada village, about 10 kilometres from Chibok were also burnt down when the gunmen laid ambush on them during church service.

The wave of bombings by suspected Boko Haram insurgents across the country continued at the weekend after 13 persons were killed in an attack in Bauchi, the capital of Bauchi State.

As outrage from within and outside Nigeria continues to trail last Wednesday’s bomb blast in Abuja, which claimed 22 lives and left 50 others injured, some of the survivors have narrated their close shave with death.

The Department of State Security, DSS, on its part disclosed that security agencies actually obtained intelligence reports two weeks ago that the terrorists planned to attack a busy shopping mall or market in Abuja. Major markets in the city were virtually deserted, yesterday, following the bomb blast.

A third deadly explosion in the Federal capital territory, Abuja in two months, yesterday, exploded at a shopping mall, EMAB Plaza, adjacent BANEX Plaza, Aminu Kano Crescent, Wuse II, at 3. 50 pm. It killed no fewer than 21 persons and injured 17 others. The extremist Boko Haram sect claimed responsibility for the two explosions in April and May in Nyanya, a suburb of the capital.

No fewer than 38 persons, including women and children, were killed on Monday night in separate attacks on Fadan Karshi and Nandu villages in Sanga Local Government Area of Kaduna State.

At least 91 persons, were said to have been abducted by suspected Islamic militants between Thursday and Sunday from the Kumanza,Yaga and Dagu, Damboa and Dagu, Damboa and Askira Uba Local Government Areas of Borno State, local vigilante officials said yesterday night.

Ekiti State Governor-elect, Mr. Peter Ayodele Fayose, yesterday, said he won the election because of his past performance and catering for the welfare of the people.
Fayose spoke to reporters on how he took Ekiti state from the incumbent governor, Dr. Kayode Fayemi.

Less than 48 hours after the Chief of Defense Staff, CDS, Air Chief Marshal Alex Badeh dismissed as untenable, rumours in some quarters of a possible coup d’etat in the country, the All Progressives Congress, APC yesterday called on the international community and Nigerians to prevail on President Goodluck Jonathan not to derail the country’s democracy.

Outrage, yesterday, trailed the fencing off of some governors of the All Progressives Congress, APC, from Ekiti State by agents of the Federal Government hours before the police placed a 60-hour restriction on movements into and out of the state.

Against the backdrop of security challenges confronting the country and insinuations making the rounds of a possible coup d’ etat, the Chief of Defence Staff, Air Chief Marshal Alex Badeh has dismissed as untenable, such rumours insisting that the military would do everything to defend democracy and its growth in Nigeria.

THE Defence Headquarters disclosed, yesterday, that one of the most wanted terror kingpins of the Boko Haram group was among the 486 suspected insurgents arrested last Sunday on the Enugu-Port Harcourt Expressway. They were arrested by soldiers from the Asa Military Base, 14 Brigade, Ohafia Barracks, Abia State.

SOLDIERS from the Asa Military Base of 14 Brigade, Ohafia Barracks, Abia State, Sunday arrested 486 suspected insurgents including eight girls. The arrest was made same day bombs were uncovered and defused in a church in neighbouring Imo State.