The president of Pentecostal Fellowship of Nigeria, PFN, Pastor Ayo Oritsejafor,on July 6, became the first Pentecostal minister to emerge as the president of the umbrella body of Christians in Nigeria, the Christian Association of Nigeria, CAN. In his first interview in his church office in Warri, the cleric speaks on his programme for Nigerian Christians and expresses his views on next year’s elections.

The first salvo was caustic: “Nigeria is becoming a progressively worse country and we have gotten to a stage where the administration we just complained about yesterday or just got rid of is considered better than the new one.
“Just look at Goodluck Jonathan. The court gave a judgment on the Bauchi State Deputy Governor who was wrongly impeached and yet, the state governor, a member of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, refuses to obey the court judgment. Even as bad as late President Umaru Musa Yar’Adua was, he would not just sit and watch the show of shame in Bauchi where you have two deputy governors. That is the sad story of my country”. Kayode Fayemi is of the Action Congress, AC, and was its governorship candidate in the Ekiti State governorship contest of 2007. His pedigree as an intellectual of global reckoning compelled us to seek his views. You will not be disappointed.

THE menace of kidnapping in Abia state became noticeable about two years ago but assumed a very worrying and dangerous dimension last year when residents of the state, especially Aba, the commercial capital, deserted the city and relocated to other states, mainly Abuja, Lagos and Asaba.

The Ebonyi state police command has arrested a 45- year-old man, Chibuke Onwu, suspected to have attempted defilement of a two- year-old baby at Hausa quarters in Abakaliki, Ebonyi State.

In Niger State, the Police arrested a middle- aged man, Ayuba Umar who confessed to have been hired to kill or kidnap a hotelier in Keffi. Two fake corps members, Temitayo Eniola Ogueyungbo and Theresa Chinenya Ugwu were also rounded up while trying to register officially at the NYSC Orientation Camp in Paiko.

Lagos State which was once regarded as one of the dirtiest cities in the world, in recent times is now one of the internationally acknowledged cleanest cities, evidenced by the professional, efficient and sustainable waste management and disposal services being provided by the LAWMA agency in the state.

The Nigeria Union of Journalists, NUJ, and the Broadcasting Organization of Nigeria, BON, on Friday, insisted that the recent abduction of four journalists in Abia State was masterminded by yet to be identified politicians, even as it appealed to the kidnappers to release the victims unconditionally.

So, you can see it’s not something that started for Jonathan per se. It is a role up of what we have done in 2007. I was the vice chairman of Yar’Adua/ Goodluck Jonathan support group. Having said tha, t what are the other differences to show that we are not just doing it as a business for the stomach.

Controversy has continued to trail the announcement by the Lagos State Government through the Ministry of Transportation (MOT) late last month, on its plans to embark on an aggressive enforcement of all traffic laws regarding the operations of commercial motorcyclists popularly called Okoda in the metropolis as the association of Okada riders has taken the state government to court on the matter seeking proper interpretation of the law.

The issue of zoning political offices within the respective political parties has generated so many furore in the polity, that a constitutional x-ray into it has become imperative if not abundantly necessary.