TO be born with disability is quite challenging. Being born whole and having to suffer sudden disability for no fault of yours at a tender age could be cruel, far more challenging and regrettable.

RESIDENTS of Kubwa extension II, a suburb of the Federal Capital Territory, FCT, Abuja are presently up in arms against a contractor and a staff of the Power Holdings Company of Nigeria over an alleged ploy to deny the community of a transformer after they had paid N3.4million for it. The residents alleged that the contractor, Mr Chukwudi Chukwuleke, connived with his wife, Mrs Eyiuche Chukwudi, a staff of PHCN Kubwa, to extort them in the transformer installation deal.

LAGOS residents have recently woken up to the reality of kidnapping in the metropolis. The latest in the series was the abduction of Chairman of Ejigbo Local Council Development Area, LCDA, Lagos, Kehinde Bamigbetan, by three gunmen late Monday night, April 15, 2013. He was later set free Saturday night, after six days in captivity.

Two years ago, 10 corps members were brutally killed while undergoing the mandatory one year National Youth Service Corps, NYSC, scheme in Bauchi State. The tragic incident was a fallout of the crises that attended the April 17, 2011 presidential election, with the massacre of the innocent spreading to other Northern states such as Kano, Gombe and Kaduna, leaving the nation shell-shocked, with most Nigerians responding with torrents of condemnation and calling on the Federal Government to ensure that the perpetrators of the dastardly act were speedily brought to book.

Nigerian traders under the aegis of Traders’ Right Protection Initiative has called on Lagos State government to review its policies on incessant market closures, saying this have had adverse effect on their businesses.

IT was an action, some thought, offended even the gods as it reduced an otherwise respected Oba to an object of public humiliation and ridicule. For how else could one describe a situation where a royal father was stripped stark naked by some of his irate subjects after his family members were attacked and his palace set ablaze?

Mr. Frank Ogundana, 50, is presently in deep grief over the loss of his two children within a space of six months. His eight-year-old daughter, Donna, who was admitted at the General Hospital Ikorodu on Monday April 8, died last Thursday under questionable circumstances morbidly reminiscent of the death of his only son at the same hospital about six months ago through what he described as “doctors’ negligence’’.

BUTCHERS in Lagos are testing the government’s ability to bite as they have vowed never to comply with the directive to distribute meat, particularly beef, using the approved Eko Meat Vans.

Umike is village in Awka South Local Government Area of Anambra State. The community is at the brink of becoming extinct, no thanks to the gully erosion that is ravaging the area. Several houses in the area have been swallowed by the erosion and the fear of the people is that if nothing is urgently done, the entire community might soon be washed away.

RESIDENTS of Jakande Estate and Isheri-Oshun in Alimosho Local Government of Lagos State would want Governor Babatunde Fashola to come to the aid by expediting action on the delayed road project in their area. One of them, a traditional ruler and chief executive officer of Becan Garden and Suites Limited Chief Donatus Nwafor, said apart from bad road, insecurity and inadequate power supply were other problems the Governor should address to make life meaningful for the people.

Niger State has had its own bitter experience of the Boko Haram nightmare, with attacks from the dreaded terrorists leaving scores of people dead and property worth millions of naira destroyed. The tragic incidents also left a thick cloud of fear in the state.

CALL him a veteran in vandalising installations belonging to the Power Holding Company of Nigeria, PHCN, you will not be wrong. The truth is that middle aged Chukwu Onyekachi from Okofia Village, Ezza East Development Centre in Ezza South local government area of Ebonyi State was for long on top of his game as a vandal until nemesis caught up with him following his arrest by men of the State Command of the Nigeria Security and Civil Defence Corps, NSCDC.

COMMANDANT General of the Nigeria Security and Civil Defence Corps, NSCDC, Dr. Ade Abolurin, has warned his members not to avenge the death of their colleagues who were allegedly killed, last week, by policemen in Owutu area of Ikorodu in Lagos State.

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.

A POPULAR proverb has it that everyday is pregnant with mysteries which defy human knowledge. This saying played itself out on March 21, 2013 in Yelwa Makaranta Community, a suburb of Bauchi metropolis when two middle aged men lost their lives while working inside a well. The incident threw the entire residents of the community into confusion and mourning.