THE Somolu family in Lekki area of Lagos and the authorities of a private school in Mafoluku, Laureates College and Kiddies’ Kingdom Private School, are in deep mourning and inconsolable.

This is certainly not the best of times for the Okafors who are currently thrown into grief following the death of their bread winner in last Sunday’s plane crash in Iju area of Lagos.

The Federal Government, yesterday, grounded Dana Airline following last Sunday’s crash of its Lagos-bound aircraft at Iju-Ishaga area killing all the 154 passengers and crew on board as well as 16 others on ground when it landed on a two-storey building.

An official of Dana Airline, yesterday, made a startling revelation on the circumstances surrounding Sunday’s crash of the airline’s Lagos-bound plane in Iju-Ishaga, Lagos, saying the management of the airline knew the ill-fated aircraft was faulty before take-off but still went ahead to fly it.

CALL it a weekend of disaster and you will not be wrong. Beginning from Thursday, Nigeria, the world’s largest black nation has been engulfed in a series of air and land tragedies that have claimed about 267 lives and destroyed property worth billions of Naira.

It was another tragic day on Lagos-Ibadan expressway, yesterday, as 24 vehicles were burnt after an articulated vehicle carrying fuel fell and caught fire.

The five-day old protest by students of the University of Lagos, UNILAG, over the change of its name to Moshood Abiola University, Lagos, MAUL, yesterday nearly degenerated into violence as the police and students clashed, leading to a first year female student being nearly choked to death by smoke from canisters of tear gas thrown into the instititution by policemen. This is even as the suit challenging the change of name comes up before the Federal High Court on June 17.

A German Engineer, Edgar Fritz Raupach, who was held hostage by gunmen since January 26 this year was killed by his captors yesterday when Nigerian security forces stormed their hideout, a bungalow apartment located at Danbare surburb, along Gwarzo highway, in Kano.

Authorities of the University of Lagos, yesterday, ordered immediate closure of the university following protests by students of the institution which entered second day over the renaming of the school to Moshood Abiola University. This came as the Federal Government insisted that there was no going back on the decision.

Outrage and kudos, yesterday, greeted the announcement by President Goodluck Jonathan renaming the University of Lagos as Moshood Abiola University, Lagos. In a national broadcast to mark his one year in office, President Jonathan said: “The Federal Government has decided that late Chief M.K.O. Abiola be honoured, for making the ultimate sacrifice in the pursuit of justice and truth.