Gunmen, yesterday, raised the stake when they abducted the mother of the Minister of Finance, Prof. Okonjo-Iweala, Professor Kamene Okonjo, in Ogwashi-Uku, Delta State.

As the feud between former President Olusegun Obasanjo and his one-time protégé, President Goodluck Ebele Jonathan, deepens, former Vice President Atiku Abubakar has declared that he is not involved in their voyage of acrimony.

The People’s Democratic Party, PDP, and the Democratic People’s Party, DPP, on Friday in Abuja commended INEC for the de-registration of 28 political parties.

Borno State Governor, Alhaji Kashim Shettima, yesterday, blamed the governors in the North and the Federal Government for the Boko Haram insurgency in the northern part of the country.

Governor, Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), Mallam Sanusi Lamido Sanusi, yesterday, said the Nigerian constitution makes it impossible for economic development in the country and is responsible for the huge recurrent expenditure in the various tiers of government.

The Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, and the country’s leading opposition political parties were yesterday sharply divided over proposals for electoral reform submitted by the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, to the Senate.

SPEAKER of the House of Representatives, Hon. Aminu Tambuwal, yesterday, declared that the legislature has powers under the present democratic dispensation to query the activities of President Goodluck Jonathan even as the president met with both Senate President, David Mark and Hon Aminu Tambuwal for over two hours in the president’s office.

The Joint Task Force, Department of State Security and the Nigeria Police Force Dog section, in a combined special operation yesterday, in Maiduguri, killed a top commander of the Boko Haram, Abdulkareem Ibrahim and two of his sub commanders. Abdulkareem Ibrahim was top on the wanted list of the JTF.

In what is apparently a fallout of the suicide bombings of a church in the Armed Forces Command and Staff College, Jaji, Kaduna State, the Defence Headquarters (DHQ), yesterday, removed two top military officials from their posts.

Gunmen suspected to be Boko Haram sect has launched another attack yesterday in the peaceful loving Damasak, the headquarters of Mobbar Local Government Area of Borno State, killing two bakers, one of them an indegene of Michika Council area of Adamawa State; an Igbo man and two others suspected to be Immigration and Custom officers.

Following the heat generated by the call of the Governor of Central Bank of Nigeria, CBN, Mallam Lamido Sanusi on the Federal Government to sack half of its workforce, the Minister of Labour and Productivity, Chief Chukwuemeka Wogu, yesterday, assured that no worker would lose his job as the government was even desirous of creating more jobs for Nigerians.

Following the brazen manner with which gunmen attacked both military and police facilities in Abuja and Jaji few days ago, killing soldiers, policemen and civilians alike, members of the House of Representatives, yesterday, declared the National Assembly complex unsafe.

Soldiers, last night, seized Auchi inEdoState where robbers, Monday night, used dynamites to blast four banks.

Gunmen, yesterday, launched an attack on the headquarters of the Special Anti Robbery Squad, SARS, Abuja believed to be holding suspected Islamist extremists, killing two officers and leading to the escape of 30 detainees.

Over 11 persons were feared dead, yesterday and several others seriously injured when a suicide bomber rammed into theSaint AndrewsProtestantChurch, inside the Army Cantonment, Jaji, inKaduna.