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The governor of Abia state, Okezie Ikpeazu is in fresh trouble as the Nigerian Supreme Court has ordered the Federal High Court to retry  the case challenging the fraudulent payment of taxes that enabled his qualification to contest the governorship election of the state. Some of his opponents in the  People’s Democratic Party led by Obasi Uba Ekagbara and Chukuemeka Mba had dragged him to the Federal High Court via suit FHC/ABJ/ CS/1086/2014 over his eligibility to contest in the primary election conducted for governorship aspirants of the party in the state during the last election in 2015. Even though he won the primary, his opponents alleged that he did not qualify to contest as he did not pay his taxes of years 2011, 2012 and 2013 as at when due. The plaintiffs dragged Ikpeazu, the People’s Democratic Party and the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) and produced convincing evidence at the Federal High Court that taxes allegedly paid for the...

For some in China the sky does not need to be the limit, especially when you can build a glass-bottomed suspension bridge across it. Tourism sites in the central Henan and Hunan provinces have been constructing vertigo-inducing skywalks in a bid to attract visitors. And it seems to have worked, attracting thrill-seeking tourists and locals, all wanting a chance to experience a bird's eye view of the Chinese countryside. One of them is student Li Shu Zhen, 19, from Hangzhou city. She shared with the BBC her experience of climbing the Brave Man's Bridge in Pingjiang county, Hunan province. "You look down and feel a sense of fear, but you quickly recover from that and enjoy the scenery," she said. "It was beautiful, almost as if one was walking on air." The fully transparent bridge, which measures 300m long (984ft) and 180m high, first opened to the public in September. It is one of the more popular bridges, with events - like mass yoga displays ...

The Archbishop Emeritus of the Catholic Archdiocese of Lagos, Cardinal Anthony Olubunmi Okogie, has asked President Muhammadu Buhari to urgently retool, refocus and aggressively lead by example on all fronts or risk plunging Nigeria into a state of despondency. In a statement released by the Director of Social Communications of the Diocese, Monsignor Gabriel Osu, Okogie accused the president of waging a shoddy corruption war and acting disdainfully towards the judicial authorities while millions of Nigerians were left to face unimaginable social problems. “He must retool, refocus and aggressively face the social, economic (fiscal and monetary) problems we have head on, without letting the anti corruption drive look like a political distraction,” the cardinal noted. Expressing disenchantment with the president’s style, Okogie said: “A snail paced and disordered methodology in governance, his apparent disdain for judicial authority and decisions, a lost today found tomorrow 2016 budg...

The Minority Whip of the House of Representatives, Honourable Umar Yakubu Barde, has said some concerned members of the House “have started talking on how to enact laws that will ensure that looters are either hang or their hands amputated.” Speaking in an interview in Kaduna, Barde, who represents Chikun/Kajuru Federal Constituency of Kaduna State, noted that he is a believer in the fact that people should be punished for offences committed and that such punishments must be commensurate with the offences. The lawmaker, who dropped the bombshell that anyone who steals from the treasury in billions should be hanged, said: “We are living in a very funny country where people who steal N1,000 are put in jail for years, while some people steal billions and use the loot to escape justice. That is not good enough. If you ask me personally, I will tell you that we have started discussion; I’ll let the cat out of the bag.” Barde, who urged Nigerians to take bold stand on the issue of corrupt...