Emotions ran high, yesterday, at the Federal Medical Centre, Yenagoa Bayelsa State, as the remains of 11 out of the 12 policemen killed last Friday were deposited at the hospital’s morgue.

The Chief Justice of Nigeria, CJN, Justice Aloma Mariam Mukhtar, yesterday, expressed concern over the quality of judgments emanating from various courts in the country, insisting that public confidence and trust in the judiciary has nosedived.

Islamic sect, Boko Haram has said that the Shura Council, the highest decision-making organ of the sect led by Imam Abubakar Ibn Shekau, which has the power to decide whether the sect will accept the offer of amnesty being planned by the Federal Government is yet to take a decision on the offer even as another faction of the sect has publicly rejected the amnesty saying the group did not ask for it.

Let me begin by appreciating my good friend, in-law and compatriot, Uncle Sam Amuka, easily called Uncle Sam, the Publisher of the Vanguard titles on whose ,invitation I am here today. Looking back at those good old days like a series of snapshots in an album, with different phases and faces in our journey through life, one cannot but thank God for the successes we have recorded in our various undertakings, I make bold to say that Uncle Sam is that ,uncommon Nigerian who understands the nexus between media and power, and the value and virtue of good friendship. I deeply cherish this association. May the Almighty God continue to grant you strength and wisdom as you age gracefully.

At a colourful Vanguard Personality of the Year Award ceremony, held yesterday in Lagos, former military president, General Ibrahim Badamasi Babangida, stirred fresh controversy when he admonished Speaker of the House of Representatives, Hon. Aminu Waziri Tambuwal, to seek higher office.

After several months of buck passing between the Presidency and stakeholders in the north on the emergence of Boko Haram Islamic sect and desirability of granting amnesty to its members, the Federal government, yesterday, took a major step towards granting them amnesty as it set up a committee to look at the feasibility or otherwise of the programme.

Former Head of State, General Muhammadu Buhari, yesterday, slammed President Goodluck Jonathan, describing the virulent sect, Boko Haram, as a creation of the present administration.

The Federal Government is scrapping the National Examinations Council, NECO, and the National Poverty Eradication Programme, NAPEP among other government agencies. It is also divesting the Joint Admissions and Matriculations Board of powers to conduct examinations into tertiary institutions in the country. The government is taking the decision in order to streamline agencies of government and reduce the cost of governance.

Stalwarts of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, are angry over the failure of President Goodluck Jonathan to constitute boards of parastatals and agencies of the Federal Government 17 months after the boards were dissolved.

THE Joint Military Task Force, yesterday, averted what would have turned out as a bloody Easter in Kano, following a combat operation that left 14 insurgents dead, a primed car laden with explosives for suicide attack and assorted weapons of war recovered.