NATIONAL vice president of Pentecostal Fellowship of Nigeria, PFN, in charge of South West, Bishop Francis Wale Oke yesterday, commended the Nigerian press for its vibrancy in reporting and exposing the various ills in the society.

The Imagined Sacred City
THE Portuguese image of Ile Ife: The Europeans saw Ile-Ife as the preeminent city-state and as an important ceremonial centre in what was then often referred to as “the Negro world.” The seafaring Portuguese, the first Europeans to explore the coast of West Africa, arrived in the fifteenth century. Although they had heard much about the city of Ile-Ife, their inability to access interior forested regions made contact very difficult. However, the Portuguese recorded their impressions of the importance of this ancient city, especially of its artistic and historical relationship and connection to the kingdom of Benin, with which the Portuguese had earlier contact.

FOUR days after the kidnap of Prof Mabel Kamene Titi Okonjo, 82 –year-old mother of the Minister of Finance, Dr. Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala at Ogwashi-Uku in Aniocha South Local Government Area of Delta State, a contact has been established with her kidnappers who have now reduced the ransom being demanded as a pre-condition for her release from $1 billion to N200 million.

Emotions ran high, yesterday afternoon, when a truck rammed into a school building in Itori, Ewekoro Local Government Area of Ogun State, killing no fewer than 10 students, while 50 vehicles were damaged.

NATIONAL vice president of Pentecostal Fellowship of Nigeria, PFN, in charge of South West, Bishop Francis Wale Oke, Wednesday, charged President Goodluck Jonathan to be more courageous in taking decisive decisions on the security challenges facing the nation, appealing that no Nigerian should be exposed to untimely death.

As the Federal Government intensified efforts to secure the release of Professor Mabel Kamene Okonjo, mother of Finance Minister from the kidnappers’ den, the Delta State Police command, yesterday, confirmed the arrest and detention of two police men who were supposed to be on duty at the palace when the kidnappers struck.

Justice Gabriel Kolawole of the Abuja Division of the Federal High Court, Tuesday, admitted into evidence, call logs and text messages allegedly exchanged between Senator Ali Ndume and the self confessed spokesman of the Boko Haram sect, Ali Sanda Umar Konduga.

THE gunmen, who abducted Professor Mabel Kamene Titi Okonjo, the 82-year-old mother of the Minister of Finance, Dr. Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, reportedly mounted surveillance on the palace for about one week before they kidnapped her, Sunday.

Jacob K. Olupona, scion of an Anglican priest, winner of Nigerian National Order of Merit Award (NNOM), Professor of African Religious Tradition, African and African American Studies at Harvard University unveils the mysteries of Ile-Ife and the Yoruba history, cosmos and the deities in a new book CITY OF GODS: Ile-Ife in Time, Space and the Imagination, Thursday at NIIA, Lagos. We publish exclusive excerpts of this Yoruba book of identity.

The Presidency said Monday that the current rating of the Transparency International was not the fault of the present administration but due to decades of endemic corruption in our polity.