Last week, Sunday Vanguard published documented evidence as obtained from Nigeria’s Election Management Body, EMB, the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, that Registration Area Officers, ROAs, would be expected to manually and comprehensively register voters from house to house. In this report, you will read details of the type of PERMANENT VOTER’S CARD that INEC has decided to use for the 2015 elections, a card that cannot satisfy the yearnings of Nigerians for a free and fair election. Yet, Professor Attahiru Jega, Chairman of INEC, is going about his job with messianic alacrity which suggests an agenda that is at once unclear to other national electoral commissioners, Resident Electoral Commissioners, RECs, as well as some very senior officials of the Commission. This report merely attempts to clear the fog of misinformation that a permanent voter’s card, especially the one INEC has awarded its contract, would solve Nigeria’s age-old problem of election rigging. The prognoses are very dangerous.

THE once imposing building housing the NITEL office headquarters in Asaba Delta State Capital some years back has become a shadow of itself.

TIME was when the Nigerian Telecommunications Limited, NITEL, used to be the alpha and omega in the communications industry as it enjoyed unfettered monopoly.

THE multi-million naira 090 analogue cellular gateway built by the defunct General Ibrahim Babangida administration for the South Eastern region in the early 90s is now rotting away.

Since 2002 when the Federal Government began the process of privatisingNigerian Telecommunications, NITEL, things have not remained the same in the organisation. Across the states in the Nigerian federation, NITEL facilities are wasting away.

A visit to NITEL offices in Lagos including the ones located at Race-Course, Kingsway Road, Ikoyi and Marina revealed shock findings. At the NITEL Headquarters, Tafawa Balewa Square, Race-Course, the building has been occupied by Lagosians.

DESPITE the controversies generated over the fiscal regime, in terms of tax and royalty being proposed in the Petroleum Industry Bill, PIB, currently undergoing legislative scrutiny at the National Assembly, the technical team that prepared the bill insists that proposals are still very highly competitive.

*Why exclusive interviews with suspects can not be published…
We are unable to publish the interviews with the suspects in the murder of Comrade Olaitan Oyerinde, aide to Governor Adams Oshiomhole of Edo State, as earlier publicised because of some legal implications which have since been brought to our attention. And because of the need for balanced, fair and objective reporting, we present extracts from the presentation of the Police to the House of Representatives Committee on Public Petitions held on 13 February. The presentation was made by Chris Ezike, a deputy commissioner of police, Federal Anti-Robbery Squad, Force CID, Abuja.

President Goodluck Jonathan is facing scathing criticism from a cross section of the Nigerian people which seemed unabated, over a presidential pardon granted to impeached former governor of BayelsaState, Chief Diepreye Solomon Peter Alamieyeseigha, convicted for money laundering and corrupt enrichment.

The last is yet to be heard of the presidential pardon granted some Nigerians for sins committed in the past years.