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A subtle campaign has begun by three chieftains of the All Progressives Congress (APC) for the position of the National Publicity Secretary of the governing party, it was learnt yesterday. The aspirants are Mr. Sola Lawal, the Publicity Secretary of the Ogun State chapter, his Lagos State counterpart, Comrade Joe Igbokwe, and spokesperson for the defunct Congress for Progressive Change, CPC, Mr. Rotimi Fasakin.The APC spokesman, Alhaji Lai Mohammed, is expected to resign from the position any moment, following his appointment as a minister. A party source said: “The position will be vacant by the end of the month. There is nothing on ground to show that the deputy publicity secretary, Timi Frank, will step into Lai Mohammed’s shoes. The party will look for a professional and an astute politician to do the job. Also, zoning may not favour the deputy publicity secretary”.

Check out the curve and hip on Toolz as she attends the Yellow Whistle Charity Ball event with Asa. Toolz was the co-host of the Yellow Whistle Charity Ball organized by Samuel Eto'o's charity foundation at London's Claridge's Hotel.The ball is raising awareness and funds for refugees in Cameroon and  Nigeria.Asa gave a stellar performance at the event. See photo after the cut

Will the EFCC investigate an allegation levelled against its chairman by itself or for breaching Section 31 of its own Act? The  House of Representatives,  rising from a meeting, resolved that the  Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC),  should not be allowed to handle the probe of its boss, Ibrahim Lamorde. Punch Newspapers,  reports that the Minority Leader of the House,  Mr. Leo Ogor,  raised a motion, saying “ The principle of fair hearing is provided for in the 1999 Constitution. The EFCC is the one accused in this case for non-remittance of N1tn and other read more after the cut

The Ooni-designate, Prince Adeyeye Enitan Ogunwusi, will today arrive the ancient town to begin traditional rites leading to his coronation. Prince Ogunwusi was on Monday named the 51st Ooni of Ife by Osun State government to succeed Oba Okunade Sijuwade who passed on July 28, 2015  in a London hospital. All shops within the ancient town will be closed as a mark of honour for the new Ooni. EDITED FROM VANGUARD

The fighter pilots of the Nigerian Air Force have destroyed some fuel and ammunition dumps of the Boko Haram insurgents in the Sambisa Forest. The Director, Public Relations and Information of the NAF, Air Commodore Dele Alonge, said in a statement on Tuesday that the Alpha jets used in the operation also destroyed the insurgents’ vehicles’ workshop in the terrorists’ enclave. Alonge said that the operation was made successful by intelligence and surveillance missions carried out with unmanned aerial surveillance vehicles and the ATR-42 platforms of the service. He quoted the Chief of Air Staff, Air Marshal Sadique Abubakar, as having said that the operation had further weakened the insurgents and thus allowed ground troops to move into the area in line with the directive of President Muhammadu Buhari to end the insurgency in December. This feat by the Nigerian Air Force came as a result of a painstaking intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance efforts by the NAF’s Unmann...

Former Vice President and chieftain of the All Progressives Congress, Atiku Abubakar, yesterday, affirmed that President Muhammadu Buhari, has made right choices with the nominees in his incoming cabinet, expressing optimism that they will be agents of change, who will place the country above any parochial interest. Atiku-and-Buhari Atiku, who spoke in Kano, through the chairman, Atiku Loyalists Group, Alhaji Muhammadu Sugar, against the backdrop insinuations, that he (Atiku) was not happy with the list of ministers, stated that he was happy with the list. Sugar, pointed that the calibre of persons who made the list have provided him (Atiku) hope that the country was on the right path. Also refuting media reports that Atiku was among the big losers on the ministerial list, for not having a candidate, Alhaji Sugar stressed that in the first place, Atiku never sought for any of his supporters to be on the list. According to him, the minister-nominee from his Adamawa home...

FORMER Secretary General of the Nigeria Football Association, NFA, Sani Ahmed Toro has laughed off the failure of ex-international, Olusegun Patrick Odegbami to secure the backing of five countries football federations as his FIFA Presidential aspiration crumbled. Odegbami Odegbami and former Governor of Abia State, Orji Uzor Kalu had electrified the Nigerian media with their aspirations of replacing Joseph Sepp Blatter as FIFA President. Kalu, a tested politician and astute administrator threw in the towel even though he never made any formal intention of contesting. ‘’I warned them that it will not work. I told them that no Nigerian or African is ripe to become FIFA President. How far have they gone?’’, Toro who achieved landmark successes as scribe of the NFA said on our hotline. ‘’The position of FIFA President is not something that one jumps at anyhow. I warned that people should not ridicule Nigeria but many read different meanings to our honest advice. It is a shame t...

The Kano state house of assembly speaker, Alhaji Kabiru Alhassan Rurum, has urged the national assembly to enact laws to protect whistle blowers about corruption cases. He said this on Tuesday, October 27 at the opening ceremony of the sixth National Workshop on Transparency and Accountability for members of State Assembly from the north-west zone of the country by Anti-Corruption Academy of Nigeria (ACAN). The Speaker said the National Assembly should do more to strengthen the war against corruption to ensure citizens’ protection especially when they are prepared to offer information and testify against people who abuse public trust and engaged in activities that undermined the economy of the country. He said members of the state legislators participating in the workshop would act as change agents at their various communities to ensure that the crusade against corruption yield the desired results for the good of the people. In a related development, a Rivers-bas...

*Family raises dust, accuses police of shielding suspect *No, he was a robber — Police *Why I ordered burial without identification — DPO C ALABAR TONGUES are wagging in Calabar, Cross River State, over why the police are yet to arraign in court a dismissed staff of the Nigeria National Petroleum Corporation, NNPC, who allegedly shot dead a 22-year-old secondary school leaver, Douglas Ochaga Ojugbo, on March 10, for hitting it off with his daughter. Health officials from Calabar Urban Development Authority, CUDA, buried the remains of Douglas, who was preparing to write his 2015 JAMB-UTME examination, in a shallow grave on the orders of the Divisional Police Officer, DPO, in the area without identifying him. The DPO said the killer informed the police that Douglas was an armed robber, who came to rob him in his house. ‘It’s cock and bull story’ Mrs. Maria Ojugbo However, family of the deceased described the claim by the police and their son’s killer as a cock a...

A 40-year-old woman has been charged with marital rape in the first indictment of its kind in South Korea. The  woman, identified only as Shim, locked her partner, surnamed Kim, in their family house for 29 hours and forced him to have sex with her. Shim is believed to have been sexually abusing her husband in order to obtain exculpatory evidence for divorce procedures. She has become the first woman in the country to be charged with spousal rape. Earlier this year, another woman was charged with attempted rape for drugging her ex-boyfriend, tying him up and hitting with a hammer. However, she claimed she did not want to rape him. Once widely condoned or ignored by law and society, marital rape is now opposed by many societies around the world, repudiated by international conventions, and increasingly criminalized.  Still, in many countries, marital rape either remains outside the law, or is ille...

A former Akwa Ibom State Governor, Obong Victor Attah, has said he has decided to quit partisan politics, warning that his action should not be misconstrued as joining the All Progressives Congress. According to him, at 77 on November 20, he has become an elder statesman. He noted that there had been other statesmen who had served and would continue to serve Nigeria eminently without carrying any party card. Speaking in Uyo during a press conference organised in his honour by Akwa Ibom Liberation Coalition on Tuesday, Attah said he had always been a committed professional in politics and not a professional or career politician.“So, I can formally state that I have quit partisan politics to play the role of an elder statesman and to continue to serve this country with love, strength and faith with integrity to the best of my ability. “Let nobody take this to mean that I want to remain in the Peoples Democratic Party or therefore jump to the opposite conclusion that I am going ov...

The Operation Pulo Shield in the Niger Delta has said its troops have raided pirates and kidnappers’ hideouts in the region and recovered cache of arms and ammunition. It also said the troops arrested scores of suspects as well as destroyed some illegal refineries during their various raids in the region last week. The Coordinator, Joint Media Campaign Centre, OPS, Lt. Col. Ado Isa, said in a statement on Tuesday that troops of the Sector 2 of the outfit had commenced massive raids on perceived militants and pirates’ camps and recovered arms and ammunition. He said some of the notable areas raided by troops included Abonema general area in Rivers State where one AK 47 automatic rifle with registration number T94950 and two magazines loaded with ammunition were recovered.Isa said the troops while escorting oil company workers from Tebidaba flowstation encountered gunmen suspected to be sea pirates. He said the gunmen on sighting the troops discarded their weapons into the sea an...

1.  The recitation of the National Pledge by one of the nominees. During the question and answer session for the nominees today, one of the nominees, Zainab Shamshuna Ahmed, was asked to recite the national pledge, to show her loyalty to the Nigerian cause, which she did expertly, before attending to other questions. Zainab Ahmed undergoing screening 2. Nominee’s ‘God forbid’ response to a question by a Senator. Pastor Usani Uguru, who was also on the nominees’ list, played out a mild drama during the process when he was asked a question on if he has worked with any PDP senator. Pastor Usani Uguru undergoing screening His response; “God forbid” got on the wrong side of Senate minority leader, Godswill Akpabio, who demanded an immediate retract of the statement. The pastor immediately tendered his apology and the screening continued. 3. Power outage: And while the session was still on, there was power outage inside the complex, a situation which did not stop...

In a renewed drive to further degrade the Boko Haram Terrorist (BHT) Assets, the Nigerian Air Force (NAF) Alpha Jets have successfully carried out airstrikes and destroyed the Sect’s vehicle workshops, fuel and ammunition dumps all within the Sambisa forest. This feat by the Nigerian Air Force came as a result of a painstaking Intelligence, Surveillance and Reconnaissance (ISR) efforts by the NAF’s Unmanned Aerial vehicle (UAV) and ATR-42 platforms. In view of the above, the Chief of Air Staff, Air Marshal Sadique Abubakar wishes to assure all Nigerians that with these successful strikes on the insurgents, their capabilities have been further degraded to pave the way for the final onslaught by the land forces to meet the Commander-in-Chief, President Mohammadu Buhari’s directives to bring insurgency in the North-East to an end. You are please requested to disseminate this information through your mass medium for the awareness of the general public. Thank you for your usual cooperatio...

The arrest and secret arraignment of Nnamdi Kanu, the Director of Radio Biafra and Leader of Indigenous People of Biafra, by Nigerian officials, touched off an outbreak of cathartic protests in some pockets of territory within the map of the re-imagined secessionist state of Biafra. Several individuals, from within and outside the region, and people in other continents of the world, expressed reservations about Kanu’s ordeal. They urged the Nigerian authorities to release him and to suspend the policy of criminalizing the local pursuit of self-determination. Femi Fani-Kayode, not one to be counted silent or indifferent in any newsworthy controversy, joined the admonishment race too. He condemned Kanu’s persecution, praised his courage, and buttressed the ever-rehashed point of the marginalization of Nd’Igbo in Nigeria –the presumed rationale for Kanu’s verbal quest for Biafra revivialism. Waxing somewhat lyrical, Fani-Kayode swore that the actualization of Biafra was inevitable ...