By Gabriel Enogholase, Benin-City Rewind the tape to 28, April 2012. It was at the heat of the campaign for the Edo State governorship election slated for July 14, 2012 between Comrade Adams Oshiomhole of the Action Congress of Nigeria ( A C N) and the Peoples Democratic Party’s (PDP) Major- General Charles Airhiavbere. Oshiomhole […]

He came into the limelight after he was directed to take charge of Operation Messa – a military outfit saddled with the responsibility of fighting crime in Lagos State and environs. He put all his strength and professional acumen into the assignment after which he retired from the army. Colonel Hassan Stan-Labo speaks on his days in the military and security issues. Excerpts:

Mr. Olisa Agbakoba (SAN) is a former President of the Nigeria Bar Association, NBA. In this interview, the legal luminary argues that the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) and the police have performed abysmally in the prosecution of suspects. He also speaks on the probe initiated by government into fuel subsidy scam. Excerpts:

Hon. Godwin Adindu, Special Assistant on Media to Abia State Governor Theodore Orji, is also the President-General of the Abia Renaissance Movement (ARM), a socio-political group. After ARM’s second Annual General Meeting (AGM) took place , he addressed journalists on the vision of the group and why Nigeria needs to tap from the skills of the Abia governor. Excerpts:

Ms. Pamela Esiri is the founder and President of Emoeferotu Foundation, a not for profit organization which offers children and young people in rural areas of the Niger Delta education. An environmental lawyer, Esiri, who hails from Abraka, Delta State, was moved by the passion to give voice to the voiceless and access to education to the less privileged. Over the past six years, Emoeferotu which, in her local dialect, means, ‘Children are the wealth of the society’, has been active in fulfilling its mission.

Senator and former Governor Ahmed Sani, the Yerima Bakura, has finally had his way. The Nigerian Senate has bowed to his will and agreed to be silent about the age that young girls can get married in Nigeria. What this means once it is followed through and enshrined in our laws and Constitution is that girls that are as young as nine years old, provided they are deemed as having been ‘’physically developed enough’’ by their suitors, could be lawfully bedded and married in our country. That is the sordid level that we have now, as a people and as a nation, degenerated to. I weep for Nigeria and, perhaps more appropiately, I weep for the Nigerian girl-child. Yet we have no choice but to live with this new reality and to accept it as it is. After all, our representatives in the sacred halls of the Senate were not sensitive enough or ‘’man enough’’ to shoot down the whole thing, to stand firmly against the unholy agenda and to say boldly and firmly that, ‘’come what may’’, our children must be protected from sexual deviants and reprobates.

Chief Sunday Akabueze is a chieftain of Labour Party in Imo State. He has overtime proven himself to be a strong supporter of Chief Dr. Patrick Ifeanyi Ubah, who is aspiring to be the next Governor of Anambra State come November 2013 on the platform of Labour Party (LP).

The tranquility hitherto enjoyed by residents of Salawu Street, along Galilee avenue in Iju area of Lagos was truncated last Wednesday, following sporadic gun shots from unknown gunmen. Gripped by trepidation, residents, some of whom were already on their way to their work places scampered in different directions for safety, while those who were jolted from sleep hid in their apartments.

Adedeji Doherty is a chairmanship aspirant for the Lagos State chapter of the People’s Democratic Party, PDP, and organising Secretary for the South-West.

THE kidnap of the wife of Deputy Leader, Ebonyi State House of Assembly, Mrs. Winifred Ogbu last Friday evening along Gracecourt Hotel, Abakaliki, by a six-member gang which operated with motorcycles had led to the enactment of a new policy on kidnapping by the Ebonyi State government. The policy states that any building where kidnapped victims are kept with the knowledge of the owner, the structure will be demolished; and that if the owner of a building finds out that his residence was being used to keep kidnap victims and fails to report it to security agents, the building will also be demolished.