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A Federal High Court in Lagos on Friday adjourned hearing in a suit filed by seven Igbo deportees challenging alleged breach of their fundamental rights to Oct 15. The plaintiffs are Joseph Aniebonam, Osondu Mbuto, Osondu Agwu, Nnenna Ogbonna, Emily Okoroariri, Friday Ndukwe and Onyeka Ugwu. They have sued the Lagos State Government on behalf of 76 others for infringing on their fundamental rights. The plaintiffs filed the suit through their lawyer, Mr Ugo Ugwunnadi. Joined as respondents in the suit are the Attorney-General of Lagos State and the Commissioner of Police, Lagos State. The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that the case could not be heard at the resumed date due to a notice of preliminary objection filed by the Attorney-General of Lagos State. The objection was dated June 17 and served on counsel to the plaintiffs in court. Since the application was not yet ripe for hearing, Justice Rita Ofili-Ajjumogoia, fixed Oct. 15 for ment...

Ghana’s government quietly reintroduced fuel subsidies in April, and has spent about $85 million since then in extra payments, the head of the Chamber of Bulk Oil Distributors (CBOD) told Reuters on Friday. The subsidies were scrapped early last year in a bid to reduce the budget deficit and restore macro-economic stability in Ghana. The reintroduction has not been publicly announced and senior government officials were unavailable for comment. The chamber’s chief executive, Senyo Hosi, also told Reuters that Ghana’s reserves of oil for domestic consumption normally stand at around four weeks. The reserves have fallen to just one week, because banks are refusing to extend credit to importers due to outstanding government payments. (Reuters/NAN)

Rivers State Governor Rotimi Chibuike Amaechi was shocked yesterday when soldiers  prevented him from attending the All Progressives Congress (APC) rally in Ekiti State. His party’s candidate, Governor Kayode Fayemi, is seeking re-election in tomorrow’s poll. Amaechi arrived at the airport in Akure, the neighbouring Ondo State capital, and headed for Ado-Ekiti, but soldiers stopped his convoy at the Ondo/Ekiti states boundary. Edo State Governor Adams Oshiomhole, also billed for the rally, was not allowed to leave the Benin Airport. The chopper that would have taken him was prevented from flying on “orders from above”. Amaechi, in an sms during his encounter with the soldiers wrote: “Waylaid by soldiers in Akure/Ekiti road. Threatening to shoot me, chased me to a village called Olorunsogo Ilado in Ondo State. They have allowed the Minister of State for Defence (Musiliu Obanikoro) and the Minister of Police Affairs (Jelili Adesiyan) to go through.” In a tweet, Amaechi ...

India has replaced the United States as the largest importer of Nigeria’s crude, with China and Malaysia following closely. The U.S. has drastically reduced its demand, which now stands at about 250,000 barrels per day. India buys some 30 per cent of Nigeria’s daily crude production of about 2.5million barrels. Speaking in Moscow, Russia at the on-going 21st World Petroleum Congress, Coordinator, Corporate Planning and Strategy, Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC), Dr. Tim Okon, told reporters that the Asian countries had since replaced the US. NNPC Group General Manager, Group Public Affairs Division, Dr. Ohi Alegbe stated this in a statement yesterday. According to the statement,   Dr. Okon, who also doubles as the Director of Transformation of the NNPC, explained that Nigeria would not ignore any market in her quest to remain competitive in the global oil and gas industry.   “Asia is important and in that respect we have regards for all markets...

Cameroon has put elite troops on the border Cameroun which shares border with Nigeria is beginning to feel the pang of the Boko Haram insurgents who are storming its villages to recruit young boys, reports Sky News The Nigerian-born Islamic militant group Boko Haram is terrorising communities inside neighbouring Cameroon and snatching young boys from across the border and forcing them to join the sect. According to The Nation's reports, Abubakar Shekau is the shadowy leader of Boko Haram who took control of the Islamist group after the death of founder Mohammed Yusuf in 2009. Little is known about him, although he was born in Shekau village in the northeastern state of Yobe and is now thought to be in his early 40s. We saw abandoned villages and burned-out schools inside Cameroon, despite the presence of hundreds of troops including some of the country’s top soldiers from the elite rapid response unit Battalion D’Intervention Rapide (BIR). Shekau is Nigeria’s most-want...

Dear ladies, be very careful. Not all guys you meet on the social media are genuine, especially now that too many chatting services are springing up here and there. Rough guys are taking advantage of ladies any how. Following her nasty experience in the hands of guys, a young lady, Elizabeth John Adie, has given oral evidence about how she was gang-rapéd by a group of men she met through a social networking site, 2GO. According to her, the guys picked her in an ash colour vehicle with unknown registration number to Aso B area where they threatened her with knives, searched her handbag and took her two blackberry phones, cash of N8,000 and other foreign currencies, before raping her. The case was mentioned at the Upper Area Court, Mararaba Gurku, Nasarawa State. One of the accused, 22-year-old Agbo Emmanuel, a school certificate holder has been in police detention since the incident occurred but was brought to court on February 11, charged with criminal conspiracy, intimidation, e...

ABAKALIKI — EBONYI StatePolice Command, yesterday, paraded four suspected rapists from Ohaozara and Onicha Local Government Areas of the state. The rapists, who confessed to the crime, were paraded for assault, attempted rape, robbery, malicious damage and other related offences. Briefing newsmen at Command Headquarters in Abakaliki, the state Police Public Relations Officer, ASP Chris Anyanwu, who lamented the high incidences of rape related offences in the state called on parents, guardians and community leaders to work assiduously to ensure that the menace was nipped in the bud. He said: “On June 8, Mrs. Hanna Augustine Chukwu, 82, a native of Umuira Okposi in Ohaozara Local Government Area, boarded a commuter bus from Enugwulangwu road. The driver, one John Isaac, dropped other passengers and on noticing that the woman was the only one left in the bus, stopped and dragged her to the rear side of the vehicle and raped her. “After the act, he robbed her of N8,500 and drove ...

At least, no fewer than 8 communities and villages bordering Cameroon Republic, Gwoza, Askira Cuba Local Government Areas of Borno state and Madagali, the headquarters of Gulak Local Government Area of Borno state were on Thursday afternoon razed and completely sacked when some suspected Boko Haram terrorists laid separate ambushes, living scores dead, several others injured with displacement of residents into the bush for safety. Our Correspondent gathered from reliable sources that the insurgents who had separated themselves into groups and stormed Yaza, Kirshinga, Kwargulam, Kuda, Shuwari Bayan kogi of  Madagali in Adamawa state and some remote villages near Lassa in Askira -Uba at about 2pm wrecked havoc by killing several people including aged, youth and teenagers before setting ablaze many houses, churches, shops, vehicles after carting away with food stuffs and hard earned cash of money belonging to the poor innocent residents. A resident of Kirshinga who spoke to our...

Residents of Umuahia, Abia State, were on Monday thrown into confusion when the lifeless body of a 72-year-old business man, abducted by yet-to-be identified gunmen, was found on the road at Olokoro, a suburb of the town. The victim, Elder Alex Okonkwo, a native of Akata in Oru East of Imo State, was the owner of a popular supermarket in Umuahia from where he was abducted on Sunday June 8, 2014. Speaking with our correspondent on Wednesday at their residence, one of the sons of the deceased, Ndubueze, said his father was abducted by unknown gunmen numbering about four around 8am on the fateful day. According to him, the kidnappers shot sporadically into the air before cramming his diabetic father into the boot of their (abductors’) waiting Toyota Camry and zooming off. He said that the abductors later established contact with the family and demanded a huge sum of money as ransom, but after many negotiations, the family agreed to pay N1.7m. Payment of the agreed ransom, acc...

The police have arraigned a suspected serial killer, Adigun Oriyomi, 29, for the murder of a woman, Muninat Agbabiaka, her four-month-old daughter, Aishat, and a 26-year-old woman, Wakilatu Adeboye. Oriyomi and five other suspected members of the Black Axe Confraternity- Toba Ajiboye (37), Yusuf Akinwale (28), Muyideen Gafaru (31), Sherif Kosoko (38) and Yakubu Olayiwola (40), were arraigned on three separate murder charges before a Yaba Chief Magistrate’s Court. PUNCH Metro had reported that Oriyomi had been arrested by the police and arraigned for murder, but that he came out under controversial circumstances. In October 1, 2013, our correspondent had reported that the Kogi State indigene was arraigned before an Ebute Meta Magistrate’s Court for allegedly killing four people in the Mushin area of the state. Our correspondent reported that he was remanded in prison, while the case was adjourned for legal advice from the Directorate of Public Prosecutions. The DPP, having ...

These are the shocking pics of a Roma teenager who was beaten and left for dead in a supermarket trolley. Vigilantes kidnapped the 16-year-old boy, known only as Darius, from the camp he shares with his family near the northern commuter town of Pierrefitte-sur-Seine on the outskirts of Paris. The thugs rang the youngster's mother demanding a €12,000 ransom for the safe return of her son. The figure was later reduced to €4,000, but when it was not paid, the gang battered Darius before dumping him in a shopping trolley before leaving it on the roadside. Continu... Doctors in a Paris hospital have placed Darius in a medically induced coma following Friday's brutal assault, which has left him fighting for his life.  Police confirmed that Darius was set upon on Friday night by a ‘dozen masked men on waste ground around Pierrefitte,’ according to a police source. The boy's mother has told detectives that she received a call from the vigilantes on his abandoned mobile phone....