STATESMEN are usually given state burial but former Biafran Leader, Dim Chukwuemeka Odumegwu-Ojukwu, will get more than that. His body will be flown to three African countries and one American country before the final burial in his Nnewi country home, according to his will.

ISLAMIC sect, Boko Haram, which has claimed responsibility for series of bomb attacks in the northern part of the country, yesterday, declared that its next targets would be offices of political parties nationwide even as it denied any link with serving Senator Ali Ndume who is facing trial in Abuja for allegedly being a sponsor of the sect.

NIGERIANS, yesterday, hailed President Goodluck Jonathan’s removal of Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC, Chairman, Mrs. Farida Waziri, saying it was long overdue.

FOLLOWING his alleged complicity in sponsorship of the Boko Haram Islamic sect, the States Security Service, SSS, yesterday, arraigned Senator Mohammed Ali Ndume (Borno South Senatorial District), before an Abuja Chief Magistrate Court even as his colleagues in the Senate resolved to stand by him until investigations into the case have been concluded.

THE Central Bank of Nigeria, CBN, yesterday, devalued the nation’s currency from N150 to N160 to the dollar. In devaluing the currency, the CBN moved the band it wants the naira to trade in to between N150 and N160 to the U.S. dollar, compared with N145-N155 to the dollar it sold previously, due to the prolonged weakness of the naira and high demand of the dollar. At the official market, the naira has always sold above the CBN’s upper band.

AHEAD of today’s resumption of judicial proceedings on the validity of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP gubernatorial primaries in Bayelsa State, President Goodluck Jonathan yesterday charged party leaders not to be intimidated over the disqualification of Governor Timipre Sylva.

NIGERIANS, yesterday, mourned the death of the Chairman and Publisher of The Guardian newspaper, Alexander Uruemu Ibru. Chief Ibru who died at about 1.30pm yesterday, while in the course of an illness, was aged 66.

The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) made good its promise to hold its gubernatorial primaries in Bayelsa State, yesterday, notwithstanding a court order stopping the exercise.

THE Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, yesterday said it would go ahead with tomorrow’s gubernatorial primaries in Bayelsa State irrespective of the judicial process initiated by Governor Timipre Sylva who has been excluded from the contest.

A FEDERAL High Court in Abuja, yesterday, ordered the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, to suspend its scheduled November 19 gubernatorial primaries for Bayelsa State, till November 22, when a motion ex-parte filed by the embattled governor of the state, Timipre Sylva, will be determined.

SENATORS returning from the Eid-el-Kabir holidays were, yesterday, in angry mood with President Goodluck Jonathan over the security situation in the country lamenting what they described as his inability to protect lives and property.

The Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, was yesterday perfecting fresh plans to checkmate the incumbent governor of Bayelsa State, Mr Timipre Sylva from influencing the outcome of the party’s primaries in the state. This came as there were conflicting reports as to whether the ward congress scheduled for yesterday held or not.

Governor Timipre Sylva of Bayelsa State was last night pondering his options after the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, ruled him out from the contest to fly the party’s ticket in the forthcoming re-scheduled gubernatorial elections.

The spate of hostage taking in Nigeria has shot the country into the number four position in global ranking, according to the American Federal Bureau of Investigations (FBI).

President Goodluck Jonathan, yesterday, described the terrorist attacks by the Boko Haram Islamic sect as “a temporary setback” which will soon be a thing of the past. This came on the heels of the nation’s quest for direct foreign investment which is the high point of the 2011 Economic summit.