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Graphic photos: 3 persons killed as suicide bomber attacks mosque in Borno Three persons including a suicide bomber were killed in an attack at a mosque in Dalori, Borno state in the early hours of today. See graphic photos from the scene after the cut...

Boko Haram war in Nigeria The name is “Boko Haram war”, but Boko Haram did not start the war; the Fulani-Muslim hegemony that took undue advantage of the Presidency of Umaru Yar’Adua to attack Boko Haram in 2009 did. The sect founded itself on the need to reject the inhumanities perpetrated by the status quo dominated by powerful Muslims, with particular reference to northern Nigeria. The ranka deede culture created by the Fulani-Muslim political elite enslaves the common people, and reduces them to paupers in a land flowing with milk and honey. The rejection adopted by the Boko Haram sect issued not in violent opposition, but in a life of communal seclusion with which the status quo became uncomfortable, and seclusion is also said to be un-Islamic, while Nigeria’s constitution guarantees religious freedom for citizens. The Yoruba say goats prevent farming around town; wild animals prevent farming in distant forests; what does one do? That has been the case of Boko Haram. ...

Ikeja Electric refuses to energise transformer bought by community Residents of New London, in the Baruwa area of Ipaja-Ayobo, Lagos State, say Ikeja Electric has frustrated their efforts to improve power supply to the community. They lamented that the company refused to connect and energise a 500KVA transformer bought by the community since November 2015, causing persistent  blackout in the neighbourhood. Metro  gathered that IE requested the community to forfeit the ownership of the transformer and asked residents to pay 75 per cent of their outstanding electricity bills before it would energised it. Residents, who spoke with our correspondent, said they had consented to the forfeiture, noting that the outstanding bills were charges that are not commensurate with the epileptic power supply they had been experiencing. They, however, said they had also explained to the IE that owing consumers would pay once the transformer was connected. The Chairman of Baruwa D...

Two killed, seven injured in Ogun gas plant explosion Two persons were confirmed dead, while seven others were injured in an explosion at a gas plant in the Adigbe area of Abeokuta, Ogun State. It was gathered that the incident occurred around 11.30am on Thursday. According to an eyewitness, who declined to give her name, a welder was welding a gas tank when the gas therein escaped and the vapour caught fire from a generator being used in a shop adjacent to the gas plant. The fire, the eyewitness added, followed the vapour back to the gas plant located inside a filling station, RABENG Oil, and exploded into huge flames. Two attendants, identified simply as Jaiye and Ibrahim, were said to have been caught up in the ensuing inferno. Seven others, including a seven year-old child, sustained various degree of burns. Equally, four shops were razed, while a Toyota van parked inside the station, as well as a motorcycle were burnt in the incident. The rider of the motorcycle was...

Buhari’s health: President should address Nigerians, says NLC The Presidency on Thursday insisted that despite the rumour doing the rounds on President Muhammadu Buhari’s state of health, the President is not ill. The Special Adviser to the President on Media and Publicity, Mr. Femi Adesina, who said this in an interview with  CNBC Africa,  which was monitored in Abuja, said Buhari could not be compelled to speak from the United Kingdom. The Nigeria Labour Congress, however, said the President should speak to Nigerians from the UK. Adesina insisted that Buhari was only in London, UK, for vacation and was not in any hospital. He said, “The President is in London on vacation. He is not in any hospital and he is not ill. “When he was travelling last week, the statement we put out was that he was going on vacation and during the vacation, he would do routine check-up and nothing has changed from what we pushed out last week. “If anybody has fed something else into...

How Fayose foiled DSS plan to arrest pastor in Ekiti The Ekiti State Governor, Ayodele Fayose, in the early hours of Wednesday, prevented the operatives of the Department of State Services from arresting the Founder of The Omega Fire Ministries Worldwide, Apostle Johnson Suleiman, in Ado Ekiti. Suleiman, who is in Ekiti for a two-day crusade that began on Tuesday, was alleged to have condemned alleged attempt to Islamise Nigeria and asked members of his church in Auchi, Edo State, to resist the killings by suspected Fulani herdsmen. He was reported to have argued that the killings were targeted at decimating the Christian population. Fayose, who had participated in the first day of the programme, was said to have received a distress call from the pastor after paying a courtesy call to the Government House. It was learnt that the operatives of the DSS stormed the hotel room of the pastor in the Adebayo area of the State capital and attempted to force their way to his room. ...

Governors are not meeting over Buhari’s health – FG The Federal Government has denied reports that governors are meeting in Abuja on Thursday to send emissaries to see President Muhammadu Buhari. He said, “I want to say categorically and emphatically that there is no iota of truth in this. Governors are not meeting in Abuja because there is no need for it. There is no plan to send emissary to London to see the President. “Again, I want to say that the president is hale and hearty in London where he is observing his 10-day vacation. Let us all shun the negative reports insinuating the president illness and death. “We implore those behind this outright falsehood to desist. It is because Nigeria exists that they can practice their profession. We implore them to stop overheating the society.’’ The minister told the delegation that his ministry is very passionate about the North-East and has put the region’s concerns and developmental agenda in the front burner of its activ...

Buhari was the right candidate to beat PDP — TINUBU ABUJA—NATIONAL Leader of All Progressives Congress, APC, Asiwaju Bola Tinubu, yesterday, outlined steps that can urgently take Nigeria out of recession, if taken and that Buhari was the right candidate to beat Peoples Democratic Party (PDP). Tinubu, who for the first time spoke on the inside strategy that catapulted the APC to power, gave reasons he backed President Muhammadu Buhari for the 2015 presidential election, adding that in a short-while Buhari had done what the ousted Peoples Democratic Party, PDP could not do in the war against the Boko Haram insurgency. Tinubu made the disclosures while addressing participants of Course 25 of the National Defence College, NDC. He commended the military for its exploits against the Boko Haram insurgents and warned that Nigeria must be on her guard.  ‘’I commend the Nigerian military for what it has achieved against Boko Haram. You have battled and defeated this evil enterpr...

Unilag produces 231 first class graduates No fewer than 231 out of 12,617 graduating students of the University of Lagos (Unilag) will be awarded first class division during its 49th convocation scheduled for Jan. 24. Its Vice-Chancellor, Rahmon Bello, who said this at a news conference on Wednesday in Lagos, added that 46 of them would be from the Faculty of Engineering. According to him, 6, 900 out of the 12,617 students that would be graduating, representing 54.7 per cent, would receive first degrees and diploma certificates. He said 5,717 others, representing 45.3 per cent, would receive postgraduate degrees. “With this output, the institution is maintaining its stance of gradually becoming a postgraduate institution,’’ the V-C said. Mr. Bello, giving a further breakdown of the categories of the graduating students, said that 1,705 of the students would be passing out in Second Class Upper division. “We will also be graduating 2,972 students in the Second Class lower divisio...

Petroleum marketers to receive 150bn from FG to avert product scarcity The petroleum marketers are to receive 150 billion Naira In a bid to avert the looming scarcity of petroleum products, especially the Premium Motor Spirit, PMS, popularly called petrol, the Federal Government last night ordered the payment of the N150 billion Petroleum Equalization Fund owed petroleum marketers. The order followed a meeting between the Chief of Staff to the President, Mr Abba Kyari, and the stakeholders in the petroleum sector. The money is understood to be subsidy on the cost of delivery of petroleum products across the country. Yesterday’s meeting which held behind closed doors at the Conference Room of the Chief of Staff at the Presidential Villa, Abuja was the second and concluding part of the meeting that started on Tuesday on the issue. Briefing newsmen, National Secretary of Independent Petroleum Marketers Association of Nigeria, IPMAN, Zarma Mustapha, said the approva...