Plans to reinvent the defunct Unity Party of Nigeria, UPN raises dust in the Southwest as the hierarchy of the Action Congress of Nigeria, ACN allege it is another strategy of the ruling Peoples Democratic Party, PDP to undermine it in its stronghold.

Leader of militant Boko Haram Islamic sect, Abubakar Shekau, yesterday, rejected the idea of any potential amnesty deal which the Federal Government may offer the sect members if the committee set up to look into it gives the go-ahead.

Former Head of State and National leader of the Congress for Progressive Change, CPC, Major-General Muhammadu Buhari (Rtd.) has thrown his weight behind the proposed amnesty for Islamic sect, Boko Haram, commending the Federal Government for setting up a committee that will look into the feasibility of granting amnesty to the sect’s members.

It was drama galore at the Federal Capital Territory High Court at Maitama yesterday, as the key suspect in the alleged illegal diversion of over N40billion from the Police Pension Fund, Mrs. Uzoma Cyril Attang, directed thugs to physically assault journalists that came to cover her arraignment.

FOR describing the late Ikemba Nnewi, Dim Chukwuemeka Odumegwu Ojukwu as an extremist, the National Chairman of the Peter Obi faction of All Progressives Grand Alliance, APGA, Chief Maxi Okwu, Wednesday, came under criticism with a call on him to immediately tender an apology to Igbos for trying to rub mud on the image and character of the former Biafran leader.

CHRISTIAN leaders, yesterday, opposed the Federal Government’s plan to offer unconditional amnesty to members of the Boko Haram sect, describing it as a misplaced priority and an unjust cause.

The President- General Ohanaeze Ndi-Igbo World Wide, Chief Gary Nnachi, has enjoined the Federal Government to hasten the Amnesty program to members of the dreaded Boko Haram, so long that will guarantee peace across the federation.

Following the killing of 12 policemen by gunmen at Azuzuama community in Southern Ijaw Local Government Area of Bayelsa State, weekend, Governor Seriake Dickson, has vowed to collaborate with security agencies to ensure the arrest and prosecution of the perpetrators of the dastardly act.

Islamic sect, Boko Haram has said that the Shura Council, the highest decision-making organ of the sect led by Imam Abubakar Ibn Shekau, which has the power to decide whether the sect will accept the offer of amnesty being planned by the Federal Government is yet to take a decision on the offer even as another faction of the sect has publicly rejected the amnesty saying the group did not ask for it.

Chief Guy Ike Ikokwu, second republic chairman of the Nigerian Peoples Party (NPP) in Anambra State, was a member of the Strategy Committee that tried to hammer out a merger among four progressive opposition parties to stop the then ruling National Party of Nigeria(NPN).

At a colourful Vanguard Personality of the Year Award ceremony, held yesterday in Lagos, former military president, General Ibrahim Badamasi Babangida, stirred fresh controversy when he admonished Speaker of the House of Representatives, Hon. Aminu Waziri Tambuwal, to seek higher office.

THE National leadership of the Peoples Party, PDP yesterday described the constitution of an Amnesty Committee on the Boko Haram insurgency by President Goodluck Jonathan as the best decision at the moment just as the governors of Kastina and Jigawa states, Ibrahim Shema and Sule Lamido yesterday said the decision was in submission to the yearnings of northern leaders over the plight of the people in the region that should be commended.

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On Tuesday, Lagos State Police Command, paraded seven suspects of a robbery gang that attacked the Murtala Muhammed International Airport, MMIA, Lagos, last month, killed two policemen and injured several others.

After several months of buck passing between the Presidency and stakeholders in the north on the emergence of Boko Haram Islamic sect and desirability of granting amnesty to its members, the Federal government, yesterday, took a major step towards granting them amnesty as it set up a committee to look at the feasibility or otherwise of the programme.

Former Head of State, General Muhammadu Buhari, yesterday, slammed President Goodluck Jonathan, describing the virulent sect, Boko Haram, as a creation of the present administration.