…As five women, three minors rescued, weapons recovered
Operatives of Joint Military Task-force in Kano Friday morning foiled what could have been a violent robbery attack in the city’s popular textile market, culminating in the death of a soldier and six suspected militants in a combat operation.

Like a straight arrow that knows its target and ready to pierce without missing, Dr. Frederick Fasehun, the founder of Oodua Peoples Congress (OPC), replies his critics on several allegations reported in the dailies recently. As his voice rang heavily through the tape in this interview, the Chairman of the committee for the resuscitation of Unity Party of Nigeria, UPN, reveals how the idea of the new UPN was mooted and why he has not involved some stake-holders in the region in the current arrangement.

General Don Idada Ikponwen is the former Provost Marshal of the Nigerian Army and one of the leaders of the South South region. Apart from being a military lawyer, he is one of the leaders of the Niger Delta that made the amnesty granted to the militants in the region by the Federal Government successful.

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.