…Flood has washed away my farmland
BAuchi—IT was a tale of two homes, Wednesday, in Bauchi when the wife of a peasant farmer gave birth to quadruplets at home with help from a traditional midwife, while that of a lawmaker was delivered of triplets through a N250,000-gulping cesarean section.

No fewer than three hundred persons in Etsako Central, Etsako East and Esan South East Local Government Councils of Edo State are presently counting their losses since the River Niger overflowed its banks. In the first instance, they were rendered homeless, while property worth over N1 billion were destroyed by the rampaging flood.

Love is said to be the fire of life that neither consumes nor purifies; but for 35-year-old Janeth Odehgbe, hers was a different case as she has been set on fire by her husband following disagreement over her collecting a cup of wine from another man during a party they both attended.

THE rainy season is a period most travellers on the East- West road in the Niger Delta region wish should never be. This is due to the nightmare and bitter experience they go through on the road during the rainy season . For many years now, the road has been in a very deplorable state and the situation becomes worse for travellers whenever the rains set in.

Residents of Bauchi will be forgiven if they now live in dread of Sunday which is increasingly becoming a bad omen to them given the tragic incidents associated with the day in recent time. For instance, last Sunday was another bloody day in Zango area, a suburb of Bauchi State metropolis as unknown gunmen attacked and killed nine people, while seven others sustained injuries.

The loss of a child to the cold hands of death is usually a painful experience to any parent. It is even more traumatically shocking when such death is the tragic consequence of the callous action of a fellow human being. This is the case of Suleiman Umaru Dahiru, aged 31, who was killed as he was driving very close to his father’s residence along Murtala Muhammed road, opposite the Gwallaga Juma’at mosque in Bauchi city.

They saw it coming since they had long been warned that sooner or later the fate that befell businesses and structures located along the Orile to Mile Two stretch of the Lagos-Badagry expressway presently undergoing expansion would also be visited on them. Yet when the bulldozers came roaring again, traders and others operating along the Maza-Maza to Agboju Market stretch of the road could not help but let out a cry of anguish.

The Nigerian Meteorological Agency, NIMET, has predicted a 2012 high prospect of intense rains in Lagos State to be accompanied by heavy flooding. Lagos, with over 18 million estimated population, has had its fair share of rainstorm disasters in recent past. Last year, precisely July 10, several innocent souls perished in the over 12 hours of intense rainfall that swept across the state. This can’t be forgotten in a hurry.

PORT HARCOURT,widely known as Garden city is a bubbling capital city in the country. It is a place every Nigerian with taste for the good things of life want to visit and spend their vacation.

There is need to introduce what night life in Abuja could be. Basically, the federal capital Territory is known to be a seat of power and naturally, a city full of civil servants and politicians. It is a city characterised by the hustling and bustling of city dwellers doing all they can to eke out a living.

Until penultimate Saturday, not many believed the streets and highways of Yenagoa, the Bayelsa State capital could be rid of motorcycle operators popularly known as Okada.

From Otukpo to Apa and Makurdi, it is the same story of flood devastation. Benue State has been hit by a devastating flood never witnessed in the history of the state.

Benue State Government, in partnership with the United Nations Children’s Fund, UNICEF, recently took up the challenge of saving over two million infants and young children from avoidable death across the state.

HUNDREDS of commercial drivers have turned the Lagos State Drivers Institute, LASDRI, Oshodi, into some sort of home, in their bid to get accredited for the re-training and re-certification by the institute.

IT is no longer news that the 18th National Sports Festival, Oko 2012, has been scheduled for November 27 to December 9, 2012 in Lagos.