Dr Chris Ekiyor is the former National President of the Ijaw Youth Council (IYC) and currently the Caretaker Chairman of Patani Local Government Council of Delta State. In this interview, the Niger Delta activist faults the calls for amnesty for members of the Boko Haram sect and warns that the people of the Niger Delta will resist any move to use the resources from the area to fund the amnesty.

Chief Alexander Opeyemi Akinyele was Minister of Information and Culture; Chairman, National Sports Commission NSC, and Chairman, National Reconciliation Committee. He is recognized not only for his sharp sense of humour, but also for flashiness in his outfits. Akinyele, who is the Lobosin of Ondo Kingdom, is a Public Relations icon, spoke with Saturday Vanguard on his life at 75, Nigeria, the Newswatch saga among other issues.

The Supreme Court, Friday, gave the Attorney General of the Federation, AGF, Mohammed Adoke Bello, SAN, the nod to prosecute the leader of the Movement for the Actualization of the Sovereign State of Biafra, MASSOB, Chief Ralph Uwazuruike and six others, for allegedly committing treason against the Federal Republic of Nigeria.

On Tuesday, 16th April, 2013, Nigeria’s Minister of Finance Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala was interviewed by Christiane Amanpour , CNN’s chief international correspondent and anchor of Amanpour, a nightly foreign affairs program on CNN International.

Please find the transcript below.

Angered by last Sunday’s threat by the Movement for the Emancipation of Niger Delta, MEND, to commence bombing of mosques and killing of Muslim clerics as from May 31 over the terror campaign and killing of Christians by the Islamic sect, Boko Haram, northern youths yesterday, promised to deal a deadly blow on the militants should they carry out its devilish plan even as former agitators and clerics in the Niger-Delta differed on planned attack.

The threat by some Northern governors to undermine a possible bid by President Goodluck Jonathan for a second term, came under attack, yesterday, as some stakeholders from the North openly confronted them, describing the threat as a bluff.

Strong indications emerged, yesterday, that the North has taken a resolute decision not to support the candidature of President Goodluck Jonathan should he decide to run in 2015.

FEAR of a religious war loomed, weekend, in Nigeria, following the threat by Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta, MEND, to commence the assassination of Muslim clerics, bombing of mosques, hajj camps and Islamic institutions as from May 31.

…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.