LITTLE Miss Patience Abey (not her real name) of State School, Okoronu Odo on Ikwerre Road in Obio Akpor local government area of Rivers State said they were in classroom at about 10.30 a.m. on Thursday when they heard a deafening sound.

In line with the efforts of the Lagos State Government to bring sanity to the environment, the Amuwo-Odifin Local Government Councilhas begun moves to ensure that Festival Town popularly called FESTAC, where the council secretariat is located, is given a face-lift.

The feeling in many quarters in Imo State presently is that these certainly are not the best of times in the Eastern Heartland against the backdrop of the prevailing security challenges bordering on armed robbery and kidnapping. The security situation in the state worsened Monday night, May 7, 2012, following the brutal murder of Eze Stanley Akuneto, the traditional ruler of Umueze-Abazu, Ogwa, Mbaitoli local government area of the state.

The family members of a 12-year-old girl, Chisom Iheancho, who left home six months ago and has not been seen or returned home till now, are still running around to unravel the mystery surrounding her disappearance. Chisom was at the time she went missing, a Primary 6 pupil of Saint Francis Primary School in Maryland. No one had seen or heard from her since she went missing six months ago.

First Lady Dame Patience Jonathan has expressed confidence that the driving culture within the Federal Capital Territory, FCT, would change when the first batch of 200 trainees of the Lady Chaffeur Training Scheme begin to drive within Abuja.

CREATOR of television serial, Heaven’s Gate, Pastor Eskor Mfon, first of five children of Mr. Asuquo Ima Mfon, was a dynamic spiritual leader, devoted philanthropist and an innovative entrepreneur whose illuminating light was unceremoniously extinguished on Monday, April 30, 2007 at the age of 54.

…displaces illegal immigrants, criminals under bridges
The Joint Task Force, comprising the state security agencies and the military, led by the Lagos State Commissioner of Police, Umar Manko, last Monday swooped on Apapa and its environs, removing over 60 trucks and other articulated vehicles, parked indiscriminately around the area, following the expiration of a 72-hour ultimatum issued by the state government to remove them.

WHEN, recently, medical doctors in Lagos State embarked on a three-day warning strike to protest what they described as government failure to fulfill its promises to them based on an agreement reached between the two parties, few could have predicted that their action would result in their being sacked by their employers.

Relief has come the way of the families of school children who lost their lives in a boat mishap on February 13, 2012 as the Lagos State Government at the weekend gave cash as compensation to them. The children, who were ten in number, were on their way to school in Igbede in Ojo Local Government Area when they met their untimely end during a heavy rainstorm.

Saturday, April 7, 2012 will remain a remarkable day in the lives of indigenes of South Ibie, Etsako –West Local Government Area of Edo State. On that day the Aidonogie’s Royal Palace, Iyakpi, South-Ibie council was filled to capacity by a large crowd of indigenes as well as friends, relations, well wishers, who came from far and wide to celebrate the maiden edition of South Ibie Day Celebration. The day also provided them an opportunity to categorically demand from the state government a staff of office to the newly appointed Aidonogie which will translate to a substantive king.

IT was a scene of confusion in Abakaliki, the Ebonyi State capital penultimate week when officers and men of the Nigeria Police, Ebonyi State Police Command and students of Ebonyi State University, EBSU, Abakaliki clashed at the gate of the College of Health Sciences, CHS, Presco campus during what initially began as a peaceful protest by the students of the institution.

Recently, the National Agency for Food and Drug Administration and Control, NAFDAC, alerted Nigerians on the proliferation of fake St Louis sugar in the markets. The sugar which was said to have been smuggled from Cotonou had been consumed by a number of unsuspecting Nigerians without the slightest knowledge of the hazard it represents.

A member of the National Youth Service Corps, Oluwaseyi Oluwalade, serving in Adekunle Ajasin University, Akungba-Akoko, Ondo State, has donated 2,000 copies of customized Big Exercise books to 10 public primary schools in Akoko South/West Local Government Area of the state.

But for providence, members and management of the Methodist Church Nigeria, located at Owolowo street, Ikorodu, Lagos would have been thrown into mourning following an attempt by a young man to plant an explosive device there after scaling the fence of the church compound.

Lagos State Commissioner for Environment, Mr. Tunji Bello, has called on Lagos residents to verify the drainage level of their areas and obtain invert level of the major roads before constructing their buildings to ensure that houses are not submerged during rains. He also warned that those whose buildings are below the drainage level will experience perennial flooding.