ABUJA – AFTER five months of a deadly encounter with precaditis which took him away from public life, President Umaru Musa Yar’Adua last night gave up the ghost. The late President died after a protracted illness which created a political tension in the country for the period the terminal illness lasted. Vanguard gathered that Yar’Adua [...]
ABUJA—A LIST of 25 ministerial nominees was, yesterday, delivered to the President of the Senate, Senator David Mark. The list which includes seven from the just dissolved cabinet was delivered by Special Assistant to the President, Dr. Cairo Ojougboh, according to normally reliable sources in the National Assembly. It includes 18 new ministerial nominees. The [...]
ACTING President Goodluck Jonathan Wednesday became more decisive in running the affairs of government when he ordered the immediate dissolution of the Federal Executive Council, FEC, bringing to an end lingering speculations on the existence of the former cabinet as constituted by the ailing President Umaru Yar’Adua. Minister of Information and Communication, Professor Dora Akunyili, [...]
The Acting Commissioner of Police in Plateau State, Mr. Ikechukwu Aduba, has said that some “faceless influential persons” are behind the March 7 killings in three villages of Shen district in Jos South Local Government Area of the state. Aduba, who briefed the press on the latest development in the state, said that confessional statements [...]
JOS—THE police said, yesterday, that 49 people are to be charged with murder after communal violence left scores of villagers dead. Most of those facing charges are Muslims from the Fulani group, police spokesman Mohammed Lerama told the BBC. The Nigerian Army High Command, yesterday, hit back at Plateau State Governor Da Jonah Jang, over [...]
ABUJA—THERE were more questions than answers about happenings at the nation’s seat of power, the Aso Rock, yesterday. The signs of cleavages and outright disloyalty to the Acting President were glaring. This may have even landed the Commander, Guards Brigade of the Nigerian Army, Brigadier General Abdul Mustapha a verbal query. Also, the core team [...]
Barring any last minute changes, the 2011 general elections may hold in November this year. This followed a recommendation for the adoption of the Justice Mohammed Uwais Electoral Reform Committee’s report by the joint technical committee of the Senate and House of Representatives on the review of the constitution. It was gathered in Abuja on [...]
For Nigeria to be delisted from the United States list of terror nations, Foreign Affairs Minister, Ojo Maduekwe has revealed the four conditions that must be met. The US Government included Nigeria among 14 countries placed under terror watch after a failed attempt by a 23-year old Nigerian, Farouk Umar Abdulmutallab to blow up a [...]
The Senate in a unanimous voice vote on Tuesday passed a resolution directing Vice President Goodluck Ebele Jonathan to henceforth discharge the functions of the office of the President, Commander-in-Chief of the Federal Republic of Nigeria as Acting President. In this wise, Vice President Jonathan is expected to formally assume office as Acting President and [...]
ABUJA—The House of Representatives has begun the alteration of contentious section 145 of the Constitution to provide for an automatic transfer of Presidential powers to a Vice President after a President fails to transmit a letter to the National Assembly within three weeks of his absence from the country. The Bill also seeks to amend [...]
Senators are setting their eyes on February 10 for President Umaru Yar‘Adua to respond to their demand for a formal handover to Vice-President Goodluck Jonathan before initiating punitive actions against him. Though the resolution unanimously passed by the Senate last Wednesday did not set an ultimatum, sources say that buried in the minds of the [...]
A Federal High Court, at the weekend, slammed a 14- day ultimatumon members of the Executive Council of the Federation (Federal Executive Council) to pass a resolution as to whether ailing President Umar Musa Yar’Adua is permanently incapacitated to exercise the duties of his office or not. The resolution, according to the orders of the [...]
Yar’Adua must show up now or step down ABUJA- FOR three hours and three minutes yesterday, thousands of aggrieved Nigerians led by the Nobel Laureate, Professor Wole Soyinka, took to the streets in Abuja, the nation’s capital, to protest the French leave embarked upon by the ailing President Umaru Musa Yar’Adua since November 23, last [...]
A Federal High Court in Abuja, on Wednesday, asked the Chief Justice of Nigeria to swear-in Vice President Goodluck Jonathan as acting president of Nigeria pending the return of President Umaru Musa Yar’Adua from Saudi Arabia. The ruling followed a case instituted by a lawyer, Christopher Onwuekwe, claiming that the absence of President Yar’Adua and [...]
ABUJA—IN SPITE of the controversy over his legal powers, the out-going Chief Justice of Nigeria, Justice Idris Legbo Kutigi, yesterday, in Abuja, swore in Justice Aloysius Iyorgyer Katsina-Alu as the 11th Chief Justice of Nigeria. Not a few senior lawyers, especially members of the Inner Bar, had strongly argued that the laws of the nation [...]
A former First Lady, Mrs. Maryam Babangida is dead. She died earlier today in a United States hospital where she had been undergong treatment for cancer. Born in Asaba in Delta State in November, 1948, Babangida, who was arguably Nigeria‘s most glamourous First Lady, will be remembered for Better Life for Rural Women, a project [...]
Contrary to his denials during the week, the Minister of Justice and Attorney General of the Federation, Mr. Michael Aondoakaa, did write a letter to Vice President Goodluck Jonathan, asking him to temporarily act as the President, Saturday Punch has learnt. The newspaper has also unearthed the reasons why the Vice President rejected the letter [...]
A Nigerian student at the University College, London, Umar Farouk AbdulMutallab, has been arrested for detonating an explosive device aboard a Northwest/Delta Airlines flight 243. Wire reports indicated that the 23-year-old student, detonated the device as the Airbus A330 aircraft, inbound from Amsterdam, was landing at the Detroit Metropolitan Airport, Detroit, Michigan, United States late [...]
