Six persons were killed yesterday when a naval helicopter in which they were travelling crashed and burst into flames in the forest of Okoroba, Nembe Local Government Area of Bayelsa State, shortly after take-off.

SIX days after a 10-man kidnap gang seized Professor Mabel Kamene Titi Okonjo, mother of the Minister of Finance, Dr. (Mrs) Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, at Ogwashi-Uku, Delta State, the 82-year-old retired professor of Sociology at the University of Nigeria, UNN, Nsukka, was released, yesterday morning, by her kidnappers in Benin City, Edo State, after collecting between N10 and N15 million ransom.

A 16-year-old boy, Terseer Iorparegh, was yesterday caught stuck in a high tension cable while attempting to vandalize the PHCN cable along Naka road in Makurdi.

Eminent Yoruba leaders, Thursday, concurred that the Yoruba race was on the brink of extinction if something is not done quickly to revitalise its cultural values and heritage.

IN the first three chapters of this book, I alluded to the role of Ifa divination and Ifa priests in various rituals in the sacred city, especially those relating to the resolution of the conflicts between Oduduwa and Obatala. I will devote this chapter to the place of Ifa divination and the Ifa deity in regulating and managing the spiritual and social affairs of the city and will introduce the myths and rituals of Orunmila, also known as Ifa, the Yoruba god of divination; Ifa divinatory practices; and the religious, ethical, and thought systems espoused in the rich Ifa divination texts, otherwise known as ese Ifa or Ifa divination poetry.