President Goodluck Jonathan, yesterday, advanced reasons his administration opted to convoke the National Conference this year, citing national unity, peace and progress as some of the compelling factors.

Jonathan, who inaugurated the 492-member conference at about 5 p.m at the premises of the National Judicial Institute in Abuja, said the challenges staring the nation in the face and the need to move the nation forward also informed the convocation of the dialogue.

Over 125,000 applicants in Abuja and Lagos alone chasing 4,500 jobs! 16 feared dead in the scramble. Thousands fainted from stampede and exhaustion.

Finance Commissioners from the 36 states of the federation rose from the Federation Accounts Allocation Committee, FAAC, meeting in Abuja, yesterday with a resolution asking President Goodluck Jonathan to withdraw fuel subsidy.

The Presi-dency, yesterday, asked suspended Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria, CBN, Mallam Sanusi Lamido Sanusi, to provide a clear response to allegations of financial recklessness levelled against him and stop misleading Nigerians and the international community that his suspension was because he alleged that monies were unremitted to national coffers by the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation, NNPC.

Governor Gabriel Suswam of Benue State, Monday, afternoon escaped death by the whiskers when his convoy was ambushed by Fulani herdsmen who engaged his security aides in exchange of gunfire at Tee‑Akanyi village in Guma local government area of the state.

THERE were indications, yesterday, that the Federal Government is in a fix on how to accommodate the 492 delegates to the National Conference, billed to begin next Monday.

Miss Omolade Ogungbamigbe, one of the 13 students of Ogba Junior Grammar School, Ojodu Local Council Development Area, LCDA, yesterday recounted how she and her mates escaped death after they inhaled poisonous fumes in their school.

AFTER weeks of preparations, the Federal Government, yesterday, released the names of 483 prominent Nigerians, who are expected to hammer out details of a new constitution for Nigeria at the National Conference, which will now begin on March 17.

Alarmed by the wanton destruction of lives and property by Boko Haram insurgents, governors in the North-East zone of the country, yesterday, declared that ‘enough is enough’ even as they launched moves to dialogue with the terrorists and end the orgy of violence in the region.

In what appears to be total dominance of Borno State, Boko Haram terrorists, Monday night, invaded Jakana village in Konduga council area of the state, killing no fewer than 40 people including two policemen.

As the fuel scarcity enters the fourth day, with commuters and motorists in Lagos and its environs subjected to severe hardship, marketers, yesterday, denied hoarding the product. They, however, blamed the current scarcity on the delay in the release of the first quarter import allocations.

The military, yesterday, confirmed that it is currently engaged in a fierce battle with Boko Haram insurgents who have been unleashing terror in the North Eastern part of the country. The Defence Headquarters admitted that it lost soldiers in the encounters while some terrorists were also killed.

It was another tragic day in Maiduguri, Borno State capital, yesterday, after twin explosions reportedly killed about 100 people, some of them football fans.

WITH the nation yet to recover from the shock arising from the massacre of about 58 students of Federal Government College, Bunu Yadi, Yobe State and abduction of 16 female students by Boko Haram insurgents last Tuesday, the sect, yesterday, moved to Adamawa where it attacked two local government council areas which share common borders with Borno State, killing 14 persons.

“I was shot on my left leg, while I was sleeping. When I woke up, I could not walk and was later taken to the girls hostel where the insurgents gathered us with the female students. They selected some of the female students and went away with them, while they left some of us groaning in pain from gun shot”.