FEDERAL HIGH COURT BARS USE OF SOLDIERS IN ELECTIONS.

A Federal High Court in Lagos has ruled that the Nigerian Armed Forces have no role in the conduct of elections in the country.

The court relied on a recent Court of Appeal ruling that barred the use of soldiers in the conduct of elections, stating that it was a violation of Section 217(2)(c) of the Constitution and Section 1 of the Armed Forces Act.

The appellate court had also relied on a judgment by a Federal High Court in Sokoto last January also barring the use of armed forces in the conduct of elections.

The latest ruling says the Nigerian government should not deploy soldiers at polling units, a plan that had generated controversy between the ruling Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, and the opposition All Progressives Congress, APC.

WHY I DUMPED APC FOR PDP. TELE IKURU, RIVERS STATE DEPUTY GOVERNOR.

The Deputy Governor of Rivers State, Tele Ikuru, has given reasons for dumping the All Progressives Congress to join the Peoples Democratic Party, saying the APC is of rebels, insurgents and anarchists.

The news of Mr. Ikulu’s decision to return to the PDP in a move that is considered a betrayal of his boss and friend, Governor Rotimi Amaechi.

Mr. Ikuru, who was one of Governor Amaechi’s major ally, is said to have announced his defection in Port Harcourt, the state capital on Sunday.

70 YR OLD NUN RAPED IN INDIA. #SAYNOTORAPE.

A Nun in her 70s has been gang-raped by a group of bandits when she tried to prevent them from robbing a Christian missionary school in eastern India.

According to the Police, the nun who has since been hospitalised was in serious condition after the attack, which was committed by seven or eight men at the Convent of Jesus and Mary School in Nadia district, 80 kilometres northeast of Kolkata, the capital of West Bengal state, the police said.

The men escaped and police are searching for them, said an officer, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because he was not authorised to talk to reporters.

PRESIDENT JONATHAN DESERVES PRAISE FOR GIVING OPC CONTRACT - GANI ADAMS

The National Coordinator of a Yoruba group, Odua Peoples Congress, Gani Adams, says President Goodluck Jonathan deserves praise from members of the All Progressives Congress for approving a contract for the OPC to protect pipelines across the South-West.

Adams said the contract would provide at least 5,000 jobs for his boys and 10,000 jobs for other youths in the South-West.

He said this while reacting to the allegation by the APC that Jonathan bribed ethnic militias with N9bn to scuttle the elections.

KIDNAP OF CHIBOK GIRLS IS THE GREATEST EMBARRASSMENT IN NIGERIA'S POST INDEPENDENCE HISTORY - BUHARI.

General Muhammadu Buhari (retd), yesterday, described the kidnap of the Chibok schoolgirls as the greatest embarrassment in Nigeria’s post-independence history, just as he threw a challenge to anyone to dispute his success in protecting the economy while he was Head of State.

Speaking at a security summit organized by his campaign team, the All Progressives Congress, APC, presidential flagbearer also lamented the failure of the administration to put the country’s refineries in shape, saying his agenda in office would be to tackle insecurity, corruption and the destroyed economy.

Noting the administration’s strategy against insurgency, he faulted the absence of a comprehensive welfare policy or plan for soldiers in the battlefield, saying it was irrational to send soldiers to battle on an empty stomach.

THE PRESIDENCY HAS NOT ADDRESSED THE MISSING $20BN ADEQUATELY - SANUSI LAMIDO SANUSI.

Former Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria and   the current Emir of Kano, Lamido Sanusi, says the issues surrounding the missing $20bn oil money have not been adequately addressed by the Federal Government.

Sanusi, who is now known as Emir Muhammadu Sanusi II, had last year raised the alarm about missing $20bn but was removed shortly after by President Goodluck Jonathan.

The Federal Government later hired an international audit firm, Pricewaterhousecoopers, to audit the account of the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation. The PWC   report stated that NNPC must remit $1.48bn to the Federation Account.

HUNT IS ON FOR TERRORISTS WHO KILLED 19 IN MUSEUM ATTACK.

The hunt is on for three suspects whom the Tunisian government says are linked to the deadly terrorist attack at a museum in the North African nation's capital.

Gunmen killed at least 19 people, most of them foreign tourists, in an assault on the Bardo Museum in the heart of Tunis on Wednesday, rattling a country widely seen as the lone democratic success story of the Arab Spring uprisings.

Two attackers were killed by Tunisian security forces who moved in to end the hostage siege, Prime Minister Habib Essid said. But he warned that three other suspects are still at large.

JONATHAN'S CAMPAIGN FUNDS TEARS OGUN PDP APART

Funds earmarked for President Goodluck Jonathan’s campaign coordinators across Ogun State, on Wednesday, led to fracas after party officials failed to deliver the funds to the beneficiaries.

The money was to be shared at a meeting of 708 coordinators drawn from 236 wards of the state, which took place at a hotel located along Quarry Road of Abeokuta.

But the meeting, which lasted for five hours, ended in controversy after it became clear the funds were not available.

BOKO HARAM AND THE ELECTIONS.

The announcement by the Chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission, Prof. Attahiru Jega, that the 2015 elections would be postponed for six weeks was not a total surprise. Several weeks earlier, members of President Goodluck Jonathan’s inner circle, particularly the National Security Advisor, Col. Sambo Dasuki, and leaders of the Peoples Democratic Party, had begun to lay the groundwork for a postponement. Their remarks focused on the deteriorating security situation in the northeastern states and concerns over the challenges faced by INEC in distributing the Permanent Voter Cards. Yet, in his press conference, Jega stated that INEC was ready to proceed on time. As he later described it, the INEC decision to postpone the vote was strictly security-based, in response to a direct request from the military and concerns that the safety of poll workers and voters in the northeast could not be assured.

SWITZERLAND SET TO RETURN N75.2BN STOLEN BY ABACHA TO NIGERIA.

Swiss officials have said the $380m siphoned off by the family of the late Head of State, Gen. Sani Abacha, and confiscated by the Geneva authorities, will be returned to Nigeria. The amount is about N75.2bn at N198/dollar interbank rate.

The file on the matter, opened since 1999, would be closed, the officials said in a statement on the website of the Geneva public prosecutor’s office.According to the office, the move comes now that Nigeria and the Abacha family have struck a deal.

The Federal Government has long been chasing funds looted by the Abacha clan while the matriach was in power from 1994 to 1998.

SILVERBIRD STAFF STABBED TO DEATH MULTIPLE TIMES.

The death of Aishat Noble Mustapha, who was a staff of Silverbird Cinemas has been announced. 

Aishat was murdered on Saturday, 14th March, 2015 by an assailant who stabbed her to death at the gate of her Ogudu residence.

The Police confirmed a suspect has been arrested in connection with the murder while her remains have been deposited at the mortuary.

Investigation is ongoing.

DON'T ATTEMPT TO ASSASSINATE BUHARI. APC WARNS PDP.

The All Progressives Congress has called on the Peoples Democratic Party and the Federal Government to shun any plan to assassinate Maj. Gen. Muhammadu Buhari (retd.).

The APC also raised the alarm over an alleged plot by ruling party to discredit Buhari.

But the Deputy National Publicity Secretary of the PDP, Abdullahi Jalo, has urged the APC to provide evidence of any of such plan by the ruling party to assassinate Buhari.

The National Publicity Secretary of the APC, Mr. Lai Mohammed, told The PUNCH that the PDP-led government had security men specially trained as snipers to eliminate those opposed to President Goodluck Jonathan’s re-election bid.

ENOUGH IS ENOUGH - THE STORY

There had been no petrol in the country’s petrol stations for five months. The President was missing – and had been for months. The country was drifting aimlessly, on the brink. The country’s most powerful men and women were mostly involved in a grand conspiracy to shield the ailing and disappeared president from public scrutiny. Just as it is now, when newspapers bear little boxes counting the days since the Chibok girls were abducted, back then, the newspapers also counted how many days it had been since President Umaru Yar’Adua went missing without handing over power to his deputy, Goodluck Jonathan.

It was in those dire circumstances sometime towards the end of February 2010 – shortly after the First Lady, Turai, and her accomplices smuggled a comatose Yar’Adua back to Nigeria from Saudi Arabia in the dead of the night, without the knowledge of the Vice-President – that Chude Jideonwo, having been abroad for a few weeks, returned to Nigeria. As he writes in his book, “Are We The Turning Point Generation” (reviewed on this column on July 7, 2014), he came back with “the hope that by the time I returned, the days of spending a fortune buying fuel for my car and generator, after heavily tipping the mechanic to help join the frustrating queues, would have ended.”

NIGERIA POLICE FORCE (@POLICENG) SET TO DISMISS TWO OFFICERS WHO WERE CAPTURED FIGHTING.

TWO POLICEMEN FIGHTING

The two policemen caught on video fighting will be arrested, investigated and dismissed, the Force headquarters has said.

The Force Public Relations Officer, Emmanuel Ojukwu, told our correspondent over the telephone on Sunday that the men would face orderly room trial for their conduct.

Ojukwu said, “We have seen the video and I can tell you that the men would be identified and apprehended to face disciplinary action. They will face orderly room trial and they will be dismissed,” he stated.

EX-SPEAKER, GHALI NA'ABBA DUMPS PDP.

A former Speaker of the House of Representatives, Ghali Na’Abba, has dumped Nigeria’s ruling Peoples Democratic Party, PDP.

In his resignation letter dated March 15, Mr. Na’Abba, who led the legislative chamber during the Olusegun Obasanjo presidency, accused President Goodluck Jonathan of reducing governance to a ridiculous level and splitting the country along ethnic and religious lines.

The ex-lawmaker’s letter was sent to the chairman of the PDP Sharada Ward in Kano Municipal Local Government Area and titled “Notification of Resignation from PDP, each organs and committees.”

ALFA ARRESTED FOR SEXUALLY ASSAULTING 17-YR OLD GIRL IN LAGOS

The police in Lagos State have arrested an Islamic cleric, Abdullahi Omobolaji, a.k.a Alfa, for allegedly having unlawful carnal knowledge of a 17-year-old teenager, Idowu (pseudonym), in the Agege area of the state.

The incident happened on Bakare Lane where the victim lived with her mother and siblings.

It was learnt that although Alfa lived in Abule Egba, he had a room apartment on Bakare Lane where he received clients, who seek him out for spiritual help.

TENURE OF INEC CHAIRMAN AND THE RULE OF LAW.

Of late, some proxy waters testers, engaged obviously to run a deleterious proposition by the Nigerian public before any move to actualise the proposition, have started a campaign that the Chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission, Prof. Attahiru Jega, could be eased out of office by President Goodluck Jonathan, even before the holding of the rescheduled general elections on March 28 and April 11, 2015.

According to these “legal pundits,” or more appropriately pundits of illegalities and lawlessness, by March 24, 2015, Jega, who was appointed the Chairman of INEC in June 2010, will be obliged to proceed on his terminal leave, ahead of the end of his tenure in June 2015, marking the end of his five-year tenure. This opinion has become so pervasive that the Media Assistant to the INEC Chairman, Kayode Idowu, has to react to it in the media. During the last chat of the President with the media, President Jonathan also reacted to it, dismissing it as an unfounded rumour. However this “rumour” is not fading. Instead it is gaining ground.

THE MORAL BURDEN OF CLEARING MR. OBANIKORO.

Senator Musiliu Obanikoro, who resigned from his post as a Minister of the Federal Republic of Nigeria in December 2014 to pursue his dream of governing Lagos, under the PDP, has been cleared by the Senate after his re-nomination by President Goodluck Jonathan, as part of the peace agreement following his shocking and disgraceful loss to Jimi Agbaje at the PDP party primaries in Lagos.

This comes amidst the #Ekitigate saga where he and a host of other political rogues including the present Governor of Ekiti State, Mr. Ayo Fayose forced the Military to assist in carrying out malpractices in the Ekiti elections. Most of those involved have accepted their involvement in the meeting except Sen. Obanikoro.

Below is an editorial regarding this issue culled from Premium Times.

BUHARI AND THE BURDEN OF EXPECTATIONS. - DELE MOMOMU.

Fellow Nigerians, let me confess that I do not envy General Muhammadu Buhari at this moment. I will explain what I mean very shortly and briefly. The People’s General, as I love to call him, is a victim of his own popularity. What ordinarily should have been an asset has almost become a liability, or put another way, a blessing turning to a curse. From all empirical data as well as mathematical calculations, General Buhari looks set to create a major upset on March 28, or whenever it pleases the gods of Abuja to hold the elections. A game of abracadabra is still playing out while the world is watching our shenanigans with pity or amusement or both.

The ruling party has chosen to engage in a political Russian roulette while the country speeds dangerously towards the abyss. Who are we to challenge those who see power as the beginning and the end and are incorrigibly committed to fighting to retain what they got on a platter of gold. At any rate, I am one of those subscribing to the permutations of a General Buhari victory no matter how tall a dream it seems. As a matter of fact, I’m willing and ready to place a bet that the election is not going to be as closely and keenly contested as many people think. I foresee a landslide that would make it difficult for troublemakers to practise their trade. The Buhari Movement has finally ignited and spreading at the speed of sound.

HOW THE LEKKI ROBBERY HAPPENED. (VIDEO & PICTURES).

The tragic event of Thursday, 12th March 2015 will forever linger in the memories of people in Lekki Phase 1, Lagos. 

This is the day more than 12 dare devil armed robbers dressed in army camouflague attacked First City Monument Bank,(FCMB) at Plot B, Water Front Plaza, Admiralty way, Lekki, killing 3 policemen and a young female fish hawker.