For 17 years, Mrs. Alaba Gbadebo was in agony, as she struggled to care for her son, Olaoluwa, suffering from cerebral palsy.

Seven days after an ill-fated Toyota Hilux van plunged into Majidun river in Ikorodu area of Lagos, the exact number of victims is yet to be ascertained. While an eye witness account gave the figure as four, local divers, Nigerian Navy and other emergency agencies said only one body was recovered.

When on the 31st of March, 2009, Senator Liyel Imoke, the Cross River State Governor laid the first block to kick start the construction of a housing estate in the barren forest of Atimbo, in Akpabuyo Local Government Area, some five kilometres East of Calabar, the Cross River State capital, his action was greeted with a lot of scepticism and criticism as many wondered how he would transform a dense tropical forest to residential homes.

…My grandchild died without fulfilling her dream- grandmother …
Residents of Oworoshoki area of Lagos, are yet to overcome the shock of the lightening which struck Celestina Farotide, a Senior Secondary School, SSS 3 student of Muslim College, dead, Tuesday.

It was a day of agony, pain and frustration for residents of Odo-Iragunshin, a suburb of Epe area of Lagos state, when the officials of Lagos State Government paid an unannounced visit to the place and demolished not less than 200 houses.

The hinterlands in Benue State have gradually become theatres of war where the rules of engagement and sanctity of human life are brazenly disregarded. From Gwer West to Guma and from Gwer to Oturkpo and Makurdi, it is the same sad story of killings and bloodbath occasioned by conflicts between the natives of these communities and invading Fulani herdsmen.

…As displaced ‘enemies’ take refuge under same roofs in Ganawuri …
Hostility among some communities in Plateau State in the last two weeks spreading across about four local governments has again thrown up the issue of the effectiveness of the current security arrangement in the country . Many are wondering why the gale of violence has continued to escalate rather than abate.

Ahmad Abubakar Warawa, 58, a victim of the Monday blast in the Sabongari area of Kano, hawked caps within the premises of the park daily. “This is my second home; we are used to the people here and we have everything to be grateful to Allah for, for the patronage we are getting here”, he said before narrating how he survived the attack.

A thirteen-year-old girl, Precious Udu, who was taken from Obudu in northern Cross River State to Calabar to work as a house maid, has allegedly been bathed with hot water severely burning her neck, shoulder and chest even as she was not allowed to attend school by her mistress.

‘We held on to cylinder for 2 days as fellow passengers went down with ill-fated MV Soni’ …
With the name MV Soni boldly inscribed on its dark body, the ill-fated boat, strung together with wood, set sail for Gabon, at about 9 p.m. on March 15, after it had docked at the Oron quay for over a month to take passengers and complete other travel logistics.

The Omomen family of Sobe in Edo State has raised the alarm over their missing member, Mr Abie Omomen, 58, who, they claimed, travelled from Benin-City to Kwoi in Kaduna State on February 20, 2011 but has since not been found.

He made to escape from death, but it would seem death was determined not to spare him on that fateful Sunday night. Hearing gunshots from a nearby house, 80-year old Da Dung Bot Gwom, the village head of Tapo in Heipang District of Barkin-Ladi Local Government Area did not want to leave anything to chance.

AS the death toll in Monday’s bomb blasts at a bus park in Kano rises to 110, President of the Igbo Youth Movement, IYM, Evangelist Elliot Uko, has urged Igbo youths to remain calm and await the decision of Igbo leaders next week. In a chat with reporters, Uko holds northern leaders and politicians responsible for the Boko Haram insurgency, saying that sponsors of the sect have murdered sleep.

No fewer than 670 students over the weekend benefited from the MTN Foundation scholarship scheme. While 590 students were from Science and Technology institutions in the South-West region, 80 blind students in Nigerian tertiary institutions made the list of the phisically challenged scholars.

Residents of Aladelola Street in Ikosi-Ketu, Lagos, where a PHCN official and a security man were electrocuted early January this year, are still living in fear. This is because, officials of PHCN are yet to replace the obsolete wires that caused the death of their neighbours. Worse still, the old wires are still left to dangle dangerously on weak electric poles thereby posing a great danger to people living in the area.