BREAKING NEWS ....NIGERIA

Former President Goodluck Jonathan is to lead the African Union Elections Observation Mission, AUEOM, to the Zambian general elections scheduled take place on October 11, 2016. A statement posted on AU’s website yesterday stated that Jonathan would be leading members of the short term mission to join the continental body’s deployment of long term election experts who are already on ground in Zambia, adding that the chairperson of African Union Commission, AUC, approved it. The statement read, “The Chairperson of the AUC has approved the deployment of African Union Elections Observation Mission, AUEOM, to the General Elections scheduled to place in the Republic of Zambia on October 11, 2016. “The deployment of the AUEOM will take place in two phases. The first phase comprise the deployment of long term election experts and took place from July 14 to August 22, 2016 and it is made up of 10 observers. “For the first time, the AU long term experts include election/ legal political/media/c...

President Muhammadu Buhari has reacted to the abortive coup attempt in Turkey by a group of rebel army officers and men, which resulted in the reported death of more than 100 people. Reacting to the tragic events in Ankara, Istanbul and other centres, President Buhari said he was “deeply saddened by reports of a violent attempt to dismantle constitutional authority and disrupt the democratically elected government of Tayyip Erdogan in Turkey.” “The removal of a democratic government by force is no longer acceptable. Violence can never solve any problem but only complicates them and sets back the progress of democratic societies.” The President also noted that President Erdogan was one of Nigeria’s close international partners and sincere supporters in its current war against terrorism, adding that all should resist the “destabilization of democratic countries through coups d’état in the 21st century.” According to the President, “democracy provides peaceful options of changing ...

ne of the militant groups in the Niger Delta, the Ultimate Warriors, on Saturday rejected the position taken by the Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta to lead the agitators’ negotiations with the federal government. The group, in a statement by its spokesman, Sibiri Taiowoh, accused MEND of lacking the credibility to take on such a huge task, noting that the ex-militant group would only worsen the current situation. “Furthermore, MEND should stop playing itself up as if they are one credible body to reckon with in respect to the renewed agitations. “We did not embrace the dialogue initiative because of MEND; so, it is not for MEND to dictate and set the pace for us. Let them not give us or any of our affiliates bogus criteria… otherwise, they would only succeed in worsening the situation”, the group said. But MEND, while recently accepting the dialogue option, held that the aegis under which all militants would negotiate should be its Aaron 2 Peace Initiative to be...

It was looting on an epic scale; a month’s worth of food aid for over 220,000 South Sudanese, all stolen in just two days along with the giant warehouses that stored it. As fighting raged between rival forces in the capital Juba last week, the UN’s World Food Programme’s main logistics hub was picked clean. WFP says it is “outraged” by the theft of more than 4,500 tonnes of food “intended for the poorest and most vulnerable people” in a country trying to stave off famine. At least 300 people were killed in the city between July 8 and 11 during clashes pitting government forces against former rebels, and in the anarchy of war, many took advantage to steal what they could. On Saturday, an angry soldier waving a gun stopped anyone entering or photographing the fenced compound, but it was clear to see that nothing of value remained.

A Niger Delta group, Urhobo Monitoring and Development Group, on Saturday called on President Muhammadu Buhari-led administration to fix the country’s ailing economy from sliding into total collapse. Prince Kingsley Oberuruaria, National President of UMDG, told journalists that Nigerians are hungry noting that the economy needs proactive measure to prevent it sliding into eminent ‘recession.’ Oberuruaria stressed that there was nothing wrong for a government to wedge war against corruption but the same attention should also be accorded to the nation’s dying economy where the average Nigerian can hardly afford a meal per day at present The group said it has observed that the APC-led federal government was not doing enough to tackle the economy which it reminded the government that hunger knows no political or religious affiliations. It also expressed reservation with the ongoing diversification into economy and other sectors saying that the Niger Delta region was being ignore in ...