This First Class Graduate Of Economics was Shot Dead By Policeman While Defending his Girlfriend [See Photo]

policeman has killed a 30-year-old first class graduate of Economics from the Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria, according to reports.
The victim, Moses Murtala Aminu, who lived at No. 67 Ahmadu Ahidjo Street, Narayi High Cost family residence, Barnawa, Kaduna State went to a party on Sunday, where the police constable that killed him, Alex Okpe, was beating up his girlfriend outside the party venue.
When he tried to intervene, the policeman got angry and shot Aminu, who died on the spot.
The constable was also said to have shot in the air as he escaped on his motorcycle.
Officers attached to the Barnawa Police Division had since arrested him, reports say.
Kaduna State Commissioner of Police, Femi Adenaike confirmed the incident. According to him, Alex Okpe has been arrested and he confessed to the killing on interrogation.
Okpe however claimed that he fired the shots in 'self-defence'.
"The suspect is in the cell and we have commenced investigation.
And if he is found guilty, we will give him an in-house trial and summary dismissal so that he can face the law for homicide," Adenaike said.

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#RME: Friend, spiritualist kill Baze varsity student over N7m loan

A student union leader at Baze University, Abuja,  Awwal Umar, has been murdered by his friend, Abdullahi Bello, and a spiritualist, Lawal Saleh, over  N7m the deceased lent to Bello.

Bello  was said to have lured Umar, 26, who just got married, to Katsina State, where he was attacked and killed by some hoodlums who hid in a bush to carry out the dastardly act.

Parading the two suspects on Thursday in Abuja, the FCT Commissioner  of Police, Wilson Inalegwu, explained that Bello masterminded the murder after he could not pay back the N7m loan he got from Umar.

According to him, Bello had earlier asked the spiritualist to hypnotise Umar to forget the money, but the charm did not work, as the student kept pestering him for his money.

He therefore resorted to planning how to kill Umar  to avoid paying up the  debt.

The CP said, "On the October 2, when Awwal was just 33 days married, he took his wife to the father in-law's house and told them that he was going to Keffi Road to purchase Sallah ram.

"He left in the afternoon and by the evening, about 9.30 pm that day, he made his last phone call to his parents that he had bought the ram and he was coming back home. That was the last contact they had with him.

Inalegwu said that through diligent investigation, detectives got Umar's phone log and made 12 arrests, adding that during interrogation, the spiritualist confessed that he and Abdullahi killed the student leader.

The CP said the Police had exhumed Umar's corpse from the shallow grave where he was buried, noting that the body had over 36 lacerations.

He stated that Bello had repainted Umar's car and converted it to his personal use, noting that he used the loan to build a house, which the police said they had also located.

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#RME: Ritualists kill man, pluck son’s eyes

Bauchi—Suspected ritualists have killed a man and removed his son's eyes in Toro Local Government Area of Bauchi State.

The ritualists, 10 in number, were said to have stormed the residence of the deceased, Yakubu Ubandoma, with dangerous weapons, stabbed him on the neck and cut off his hands.

They also reportedly removed the eyes of the deceased's son, Ishaya Yakubu, who later died in the hospital.

Not done, the ritualists were also said to have inflicted machete cuts on the head of another person in the house.

The state's Police Public Relations Officer, Haruna Mohammed, who confirmed the incident, said the command was doing everything possible to arrest the culprits who fled the scene after carrying out the heinous act.

He said: "10 suspected ritualists, wielding dangerous weapons, stormed the house of one Yakubu Ubandoma, located about 10 kilometres away from Rimin Zayam Village in Toro council, stabbed him on the neck and cut off his hands.

"The suspects also removed the eyes of his son called Ishaya Yakubu, who later died in the hospital.

"One other person in the house, Yakubu Alhamdu, sustained machete cuts in the head."

Mohammed said police detectives visited the scene of the crime and rushed the victims to Toro General Hospital.

He said efforts were on to apprehend the fleeing suspects and appealed to members of the public with useful information to visit the nearest police station.

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#RME: MEET the Evil Dogs that chewed a 4 year old boy's Scalp in Lagos! [Photo]

The Lagos State Police Command has said only a court of law could decide whether the dogs which ate the skull of a four-Yr-Old, Omonigho Abraham in Igando, Lagos State, be killed or Spared!

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#RME: Boko Haram abducts 60 women in Adamawa

No fewer than 60 women have been reportedly abducted by Boko Haram insurgents from Waga Mangoro and Garta villages in Adamawa State in fresh attacks unleashed by the militants.

Forty of the women were said to have been abducted in Waga Mangoro while 20 were reportedly abducted in the Grata area of the state.

Residents of the affected area, who escaped during the attack, confirmed the incident to our correspondent on the telephone on Wednesday.

One of them said hundreds of insurgents overran the area on motorcycles and vans during a raid on Saturday, burning houses and abducting young women.

One of the locals in Garta, Tizhe Kwada, who managed to escape, said the rampage continued with many residents fleeing the area, which had been under Boko Haram control for about two months.

The Chairman of Madagali Local Government Area, James Watharda, said he had all along been in Yola since the insurgents took control of the area, adding that he could not speak on the matter.

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NYSC N4,000 call-up fee optional, DG tells Reps

The Director-General of the National Youth Service Corps, Brig-General Johnson Olawumi, told the House of Representatives on Wednesday that the controversial N4,000 charged corps members for call-up letters would remain optional.‎

He said the fee was strictly for the printing of the letters and not for accessing the online portal of the agency.

Speaking at the hearing of a petition on the matter by the House Committee on Public Petitions, the DG claimed that the agency opted for the online portal owing to growing cases of fake call-up letters flooding the society.

Olawumi told the committee that the policy resulted from a Private Public Partnership which started in 2013 after Sigma, the partner, emerged as the preferred bidder from a list of 49 firms.

The DG explained, "Corps members are supposed to pay more than N4,000 and we want the process to be optional.

"It is an optional thing and the process will remain optional as far as the agreement subsists with Sigma.

"Even if the price crashes to N100, it will continue to remain optional."

He added that at the close of portal, 124, 831 corps members had registered online.

However, he stated that only 23, 211 paid for the printing of the letters.

But, a group, Say No Campaign, which led the protest against the fee, insisted that there was no justification for the it.

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#RME: Graphic pics: Man cut into pieces at railway crossing line in Ibadan

This horrific scene happened around 5.30pm today at the railway crossing area in Bodija Ojurin in Ibadan. A man was found dead cut in two on the railway tracks. No one saw what happened, but they suspect he was crushed by a train. The pics are really graphic...will share one...but be warned, it's really graphic. See it after the cut if you have the heart...

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5-yr old girl burnt to death in Bayelsa

The sleepy riverside settlement of Ogbogoro in the outskirts of Yenagoa, the Bayelsa State capital was Thursday night thrown into mourning following the burning to death of a five year old girl in an inferno.

The deceased child, simply identified as Princess, eyewitnesses told Saturday Vanguard, was a daughter of a policeman attached to the Osiama Division of the State Police Command in Southern Ijaw local government area of the state.

It was gathered that the inferno which occurred at about 7.30pm was caused by a burning candle.

Saturday Vanguard learnt that at the time of the incident, the mother of the deceased was in the market selling crayfish while the father was away at his duty post in the creek of the state.

It was learnt that the sister to the deceased, who is a Junior Secondary School (JSS) student, had made use of the candle light in  solving her school homework.

She was said to have left the candle burning and went out to get some foodstuff for  her siblings.

"While she was away, the candle fell and set ablaze the fabrics on the floor of the room. The deceased and her 7-year old brother, Henry, were in the room but attempt by the latter to wake the sister proved abortive," the source said.

Man found sleeping with dead wife cleared of murder

A court in Kenya has acquitted a German man who was arrested while sleeping with the decomposing body of his Kenyan wife and charged with her murder, court officials said Friday.

The court in the coastal city of Mombasa ruled on Thursday that there was insufficient evidence to convict the man, identified in court documents as Michael Bibcke Robel, 43, from the city of Hamburg, of murdering Esther Elsi Igoki Munyi in December 2009.

The court heard how the accused was found sleeping next to his dead, decomposing wife at their home near Mombasa after police were alerted by the smell. The accused had also stabbed himself in the chest in an apparent failed suicide attempt.

"It is pertinent that under cross-examination by the defence counsel, the doctor did concede that no obvious injuries were seen on the neck. There was no strangulation," Judge Maureen Odero said in her ruling.

She also ruled that there were no eyewitnesses to the events, and that an autopsy failed to establish the precise cause of death beyond that of asphyxia — partly because the body was decomposing when it was discovered.

Judge Odero said the fact the man had remained with his wife's decomposing body for several days was further evidence of his mental instability, supporting a finding by doctors that he was suffering from mental illness.

"A person of unsound mind is incapable of possessing malice aforethought required to prove murder," the judge said.

Court officials said the man was handed over to a German embassy representative after the trial. The German embassy in Nairobi could not immediately be reached for comment.(AFP)

G7 Governors: Hot and Cold

Political Editor Harried here and there, the seven governors aligned to the Kawu Baraje faction of the ruling PDP are stuck between the devil and the deep blue sea It was supposed to have been the ultimate provocation.

The invasion of the meeting of the G7 governors belonging to the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP at the Kano State Governor's Lodge in Abuja last Sunday was generally regarded as the worst form of provocation.

As Governor Sule Lamido of Jigawa State said during that epic encounter between the five governors and the Divisional Police Officer, DPO of the Asokoro Police Station, CSP Nnanna Ama such harassment could not have happened during the second republic.

Governor Lamido who was an active player in that dispensation on the platform of the opposition, Peoples Redemption Party, PRP, the Shehu Shagari controlled executive branch of the Federal Government did not harass the meetings of the Progressive Parties Alliance, even if the utterances and actions of those governors often infuriated the Shagari government.

*Governors Rabiu Kwankaso, Sule Lamido, Rotimi Amaechi, Babangida Aliyu & Murtala Nyako

Perhaps by Lamido's observation, 30 years down the road the system of democracy in the land remains shadowed in dictatorship. The five governors who were meeting under the aegis of the rebel new Peoples Democratic Party, nPDP, were by the summation of the DPO, meeting illegally.

The interruption of the governors' meeting that day followed a similar but not so overt attempt against the same governors penultimate Friday at the Sokoto State governor's lodge. Present at the Sunday meeting hosted by the Kano State governor, Dr. Rabiu Kwankwanso were his colleagues from Jigawa, Niger, Adamawa and Rivers States; Alhaji Sule Lamido, Dr. Babangida Aliyu, Alhaji Murtala Nyako and Mr. Rotimi Amaechi respectively.

Working relationship Also present were the factional national chairman of the PDP, Alhaji Kawu Baraje and other leaders of the party including Alhaji Kashim Imam, a former Presidential Liaison Officer, PLO to the Senate but now generally known to be in a working relationship with the APC controlled government in Borno State. Others were Senators Abubakar Saraki and Abdullahi Adamu, Danjuma Goje immediate past governors of Kwara, Nasarawa and Gombe States, former governor of Bayelsa State, Mr. Timipre Sylva, Senator Aisha Alhassan and the factional national secretary of the PDP and former governor of Osun State, Chief Olagunsoye Oyinlola.

Also at the meeting were Chief Sam Sam Jaja, the deputy national chairman of the nPDP, former governor of Ekiti State, Chief Segun Oni and the national vice chairman of the PDP, Northwest, Ambassador Ibrahim Kazaure. The police intervention came in the wings of recent efforts by the opposition All Progressives Congress, APC to woo the five rebel governors into their fold.

The interim national chairman of the APC, Chief Bisi Akande had alongside the main hierarchy of the opposition party including Major General Muhammadu Buhari, Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu, former presidential candidate of the defunct Action Congress of Nigeria, ACN, Mallam Nuhu Ribadu, Alhaji Lai Mohammed among many others had in the last week made visits to the governors of Sokoto, Kano, Jigawa and Adamawa towards wooing them to join the opposition party.

Before the Sunday face-off with the police in Abuja, the APC leadership had converged in Abuja preparatory for their next scheduled visit which was to Governor Amaechi in Port-Harcourt, Rivers State. However, the developments that Sunday night it was learnt, compelled the governors to change plans.

The governors it was learnt took the decision that night to resume their visits to the country's elder-statesmen. They had in the last two months made visits to former civilian and military leaders of the country and other elder-statesmen as a way of intimating them of the situation they were passing through.

Among those visited were former President Olusegun Obasanjo, Gen. Ibrahim Babangida, Gen. Abdulsalami, Gen. Theophilus Danjuma among others. Following the intervention of President Goodluck Jonathan the governors had called off the visits to the elder-statesmen and agreed to dialogue with the mainstream of the PDP led by Alhaji Bamanga Tukur.

The dialogue has, however, been suspended apparently by the Tukur PDP on the basis of court victories won on the legitimacy of the Tukur leadership. The G7 governors it was learnt are, however, stuck on how to proceed with some of them apparently determined to leave the party immediately. Governor Nyako of Adamawa State has all but left the party and is not making any pretence of the fact that his followers have joined the APC.

Besides Governor Amaechi, Nyako has been the most brutalized of the G7 governors, given the complete withdrawal of the party structures from him. Sources close to the governor do not hide the governor's feelings of exasperation with the PDP and to some extent the dithering procrastination of some of his colleagues in the G7 to further negotiate with the PDP mainstream.

Governor Lamido on the other hand has continuously stressed his determination not to leave the party. Lamido's reasons are clear to some of the founding fathers of the party. Governor Lamido was one of the nine persons who brought the idea of forming a national party like the PDP in 1998 just weeks after General Sanni Abacha died in 1998.

The governor has repeatedly stressed that he is not inclined to leave the house he built for others.

President Obasanjo who has largely been regarded as a father figure to all the G7 governors with the notable exception of Amaechi, and has helped to guide their agitation it was learnt, is however, not happy with the romance between them and the APC.

The reasons for Obasanjo's apparent opposition are not far fetched. Obasanjo continues to regard Tinubu as a major foe and would not be inclined towards losing his protégées to him.

It was thus not surprising that the day after their meeting was interrupted that the G7 governors decided to resume their legwork with the elder-statesmen on the issues, starting with Obasanjo. Celebratory mood The meeting with Obasanjo last Monday interrupted the visit of the APC leaders to Amaechi earlier scheduled for the same Monday.

Against the background  of the alleged misgivings of the romance between the G7 and the APC it was not surprising that when the governors came out from the meeting with Obasanjo that they pledged their continued faithfulness to the PDP.

When yesterday the APC leadership eventually arrived Port-Harcourt to woo Amaechi, the embattled governor was in celebratory mood as a large crowd of supporters joined him to welcome the APC leadership.

His speech to the crowd at the joint rally with the APC leadership that included Buhari and Tinubu was also moving and indicative of the governors' difficult journey through the valley of decision. "I am peculiar in the group of the seven governors.

The President comes from our zone.  I will consult our leaders, the President; I will consult you, (supporters), I will consult all consultable. I will come back to you. The day we shall take a decision it will be at the new stadium that can take 40,000 persons.

If we are staying (remaining in PDP), we shall call the President to the stadium to address us. If we are going, we shall call Tinubu and Buhari to come and address us", he said reflective of the momentous decision awaiting him.

Don’t consult Jonathan, join APC, Presidency tells Amaechi

The Presidency on Wednesday said Governor Rotimi Amaechi of Rivers State was at liberty to leave the ruling Peoples Democratic Party for the opposition All Progressives Congress whenever he so desires.

Special Adviser to the President on Political Matters, Mr. Ahmed Gulak, said this in an interview with our correspondent while reacting to a statement credited to Amaechi that he would consult President Goodluck Jonathan on whether or not to join the APC.

The governor was quoted to have made the remarks on Tuesday while receiving the leaders of the APC, who were in Port Harcourt, the state capital, to woo him into their fold.

"Before I join the APC, I will consult the President. I will. He is from our zone. I will consult all the consultables," he was quoted to have said.

But Gulak said the governor was only trivialising the issues at stake as he deliberately engages in anti-party activities.

He said since Amaechi did not consult the President before inviting the APC leaders and giving them tumultuous reception in his state, he should not bother to consult Jonathan before leaving.

Gulak said, "Governor Amaechi did not consult the President before inviting APC leaders to Rivers State and giving them tumultuous welcome.  So, he does not need to consult the President before joining APC because he knows that the President will not allow any PDP member to go to the APC.

"Governor Amaechi is at liberty to join the APC; this is belittling the issue. We are not small boys; we are in a serious business of politics.

"You cannot, as a governor on the platform of PDP, invite APC leaders to your state and make a show of it and now say that you will consult the President who is the leader of the PDP before you join APC.

"He is just belittling the whole issue. He is trivialising the whole issue, he does not know the gravity of the moves he is making."

Man to get 12 strokes of whip for stealing fowl

Minna – A Minna Chief Magistrates' Court on Wednesday sentenced one Abubakar Abdullahi to 12 strokes of the cane after pleading guilty to a charge of stealing a fowl.

Magistrate Hassan Mohammed gave the accused an option of N5,000 fine.

The police prosecutor, Sgt. Gunduma Ibrahim, had told the court that police men on patrol at Mobile Roundabout, Minna, arrested the convict with a fowl suspected to be stolen on Nov. 2.

Ibrahim said the convict could not give a satisfactory account of how he got the animal, valued at N1,500.

He said the offence was contrary to the Penal Code of Niger.

When the charge was read to the convict, he pleaded guilty and begged the court for leniency.

The prosecutor had urged the court to try him summarily in line the Criminal Procedure Code, based on his plea

Man stabs friend to death for allegedly befriending wife

ABEOKUTA — A middle-aged man identified as Wasiu Yusuf has been arrested by the Ogun State Police Command for allegedly stabbing his bosom friend, Adeolu Olatoye,  to death for having clandestine relationship with his wife.

Vanguard gathered that the incident which occurred at Oke-Efon area of  Abeokuta, Saturday  night,  was reportedly  carried out by the  suspect and one  accomplice identified as Mukaila, said to be on the run as at the time of this report.

It was further gathered that the suspect lost his temperament when he reportedly caught  his 32 -year-old  friend  with his wife on the day of the incident on his matrimonial bed.

The suspect, according to the findings, laid siege for the victim who reportedly came  to his house, and in the ensuing scuffle,the victim erroneously stabbed himself.

But another version of the story had it that, the victim had gone to his friend's house to drop an invitation card of his mother's 80th birthday scheduled  for Saturday when the friend attacked him with bottles.

Adeolu, a graphic artist, met his death barely two weeks after he held the naming ceremony of his child.

His  remains had been  deposited at the State Hospital Mortuary at Ijaiye, Abeokuta, as police await the autopsy report.

Contacted, Ogun State Police Command Public Relations, Muyiwa Adejobi, confirmed the incident and arrest of the suspect, adding that investigation was ongoing.

Speaking, the deceased's elder brother, Akinyemi Olatoye, said he was shocked over the development, explaining that his late brother had gone there to drop their mother's birthday invitation card.

16-yr-old girl raped to coma in Ogun

ABEOKUTA — A 16-year-old girl (name withheld) has been reportedly hospitalised after she was allegedly raped to coma by some unknown men in  Abeokuta, the Ogun State capital.

Vanguard gathered that the incident occurred at 8p.m. on Monday on her way back home from where she was sent on an errand.

According  to a popular actress (name withheld) who broke the news through her post on the Facebook: "A-16-year-old girl from Abeokuta in Ogun State was sent on errand last night (Monday) around 8 p.m.  to the nearby street.

"On her way back home,  hefty men ambushed her and got  her raped till coma. As we are posting this right now,  she is lying in sick bed at Federal Medical Centre, Abeokuta."

Prolonged ASUU strike, half-baked labour force

Does being a graduate of a Nigerian university guarantee you a good job these days? The answer is no! In a country like ours where our youths are daily faced with the Herculean task of successfully completing a bachelors' degree under the severest of conditions, this is what we have come to expect.

Our graduates, when they finally complete their academic sojourn, enter the labour market with varied degrees; some with a BSc, and others a B.A and what have you…degrees that should make them proud. But, this sense of pride in them soon diminishes when prospective employers disregard their degrees and tag them 'unemployable'. What else could possibly crush the dreams of a fresh graduate with more ferocity? Unemployable? After spending more than the requisite number of years only to come out of school and be thus labelled. It can be disheartening.

This issue of 'half-baked' graduates churned out by our tertiary institutions is highly demoralising on several counts. Education at the tertiary level is swarmed with a host of problems and challenges of which poor funding seems to have stolen the spotlight.

However, other issues such as outdated curricular, poor staffing, and even management incompetence have been swept under the carpet. ASUU has stated emphatically that they consider it unfair to continue to take the blame for the poor quality of graduates, and this should rather be blamed on lack of facilities, expertise, and the inability of our academic institutions to retain bright minds; hence the need to take a definite stand and fight for an upgrade in the academic standard by way of a strike action.

President Goodluck Jonathan (left); ASUU Vice President, Mr. Biodun Ogunyemi Onabanjo (2nd right); Vice President Namadi Sambo (2nd left) and ASUU President, Nasir Faggae (right) during the meeting.

If that was all there is to the prolonged strike action, one might applaud their efforts, and even call them noble. However, in the wake of recent developments, there is cause for us to ask whom they are really fighting for. The fact that funding is not as it should be does not in any way justify the outdated curricular and obsolete courses brandished by many government owned universities. There are cases of lecturers resenting students who dare to question the status quo and question the old knowledge harangued by their lecturers with modern ones.

You see lecturers who have not bothered to find out the current trends in their respective fields of study still dishing out outdated facts as if it were the government's responsibility to improve their own minds.

Today, even in the wake of federal government's agreement to disburse funds to the universities, we must ask ourselves, how much will really go into infrastructure and academic learning? Must this union of academics that has shamelessly resolved to cling to the breast of our motherland milk her dry? The Minister of Finance, herself a daughter of professors, has become a victim of their verbal assaults. These learned people have forgotten so quickly that the allocation recently approved for them is from a fixed pool. It is ludicrous to even think, suggest or imply that a woman who has herself boosted the economic productivity and opportunity for our youth to thrive would want them either to sit back at home or to be taught under the worst possible conditions. These name-calling and placard-holding people, who should be an embodiment of learning, however seem to think so. How have they helped the economy when they themselves have held to ransom the very thing that they claimed they want to fix?

What they deem to be a selfless act to protect the citadel of learning will be no more than a show of their lack of sensitivity to the plight of the Nigerian youths – after all, who is the most affected so far by this shutdown? Certainly not the lecturers who will still be paid salaries for every single month they sit in their homes and leave the youths to languish.

ASUU must remember the saying of our fathers that when you point one finger at someone, the other four fingers point back at you. What are they teaching our youth? To wait for the government to do everything for them? Shouldn't these people set an example for us, challenging us to be self-reliant, to think outside the box? I find it disheartening that till date they have not mapped out creative and innovative ways to generate funds. No thanks to our dear lecturers, half-baked graduates flood the labour market and the value of a Nigerian-based education diminishes by the hour.

While we bemoan the fate of the education sector, the poor infrastructure and learning aids, let us remember that the main object of our concern should be the students themselves. I wish I had confidence in ASUU that the funds, once disbursed, would be used for the very things they claimed they are fighting for.

Are they nobler than the politicians and public office holders whom they say should be burned at the stake for their lack of competence and compassion? Only time will tell.

3 killed, 15 rescued, as shopping complex collapses in Lagos

LAGOS — A five-storey shopping complex under-construction at 9,  Muri Okunola Street, in  Eti-Osa Local Government Area, yesterday, collapsed killing at least three persons and injuring 15 others.

At 8:30p.m., when Vanguard visited the scene, it was gathered that scores of persons might still be trapped under the debris.

At the scene, officials of the Lagos State Emergency Management Agency, LASEMA, Red Cross and men of the Nigeria Police Force, NPF, attached to the Maroko Station, Nigerian Security and Civil Defence Corps, NSCDC, Lagos Command, were sighted still battling to rescue the trapped persons.

*Collapsed Mall

Of the 15 rescued, five are said to be in critical conditions and have been admitted at the Accident and Emergency Centre, Toll Gate, Ikeja while others were admitted at the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation, NNPC, hospital, few metres away from the scene. It was learnt that the construction workers were casting the decking and the pillars when the building caved-in on them at about 4:00p.m.

An eyewitness, Mr. Adetayo Olaseni stated: "The building collapsed at about 4:00p.m. while construction works were still ongoing. This led to pandemonium, as everyone scampered for safety."

Another eye-witness, Miss Blessing Osundare said: "I  heard a loud bang and all I saw was that the entire building had collapsed on the workers. While some escaped unhurt, others are still trapped under the debris.

"I can't say this is the number of people here, but I know that they were more than 60 persons working at the site."

Confirming the tragedy, the General Manager of  LASEMA, Dr. Femi Oke-Osanyintolu said: "A twin four-storey building located at Muri Okunola Street, Victoria Island collapsed."

"Fifteen persons have been rescued so far while three corpses  have been recovered from the debris.

"Rescue operations are still on-going and we are assuring residents that they should not panic. We are on top of the issue."

Nigeria not broke, but has cash flow problems — FG

ABUJA -THE Federal Government insisted, Tuesday that Nigeria was not broke even as it said the country was cash trapped.Accountant-General of the Federation, Mr Jonah Otunla and the Director-General of Budget Office, Mr. Bright Okogwu, stated this while answering questions from members of the Senate and House of Representatives Joint Committee on Appropriation and Finance.Both explained that unlike certain countries with similar experience which had started borrowing monies to pay salaries of their workers, Nigeria was not yet doing that.Mr Okogwu said the country was still financially buoyant and had been meeting all its obligations, adding that the economy of the country was normal except what he described as “inadequate funds in circulation.”He stressed that there was no cause for alarm, as according to him, the government was on top of the situation.The government representatives who were at the meeting held to consider the 2012-2014 Medium Term Expenditure Framework, MTEF, earlier forwarded to the National Assembly by President Jonathan preparatory to the 2014 budget presentation in November, insisted that Nigeria was financially firmed.“Nigeria is not broke but it is currently having cash flow problems”, Otunla responded to question thrown at him by Senator Ahmed Makarfi.On his part, Okogwu said though, the nation currently experiences cash flow problems from time to time; it does not suggest that it is broke.Jonathan and Okonjo-Iweala“Nigeria is not broke. We may have cash flow problem. But countries like Greek and Spain are broke. They are now approaching their international neighbours for bail out but Nigeria has not done that and we are nowhere near that situation at all”, he assured.Mrs Maria Alade, Deputy Governor, Central Bank of Nigeria, CBN, who represented CBN Governor, Sanusi Lamido Sanusi, at the event was however evasive in her reaction to a similar question.She said:“As Bankers of the Federal Government, it is not our duty to tell the Nation whether she is broke or not but we can tell her the amount she has in accounts at anytime but since the AGF and the DG, Budget have clearly declared that Nigeria is not broke, we in CBN also believe so”, she said

4 burnt to death in Jigawa auto crash

Hadejia (Jigawa) – Four persons were burnt to death in a ghastly motor accident on Tuesday in Malammadori Local Government Area of Jigawa.Eight other persons sustained injuries in the accident which occurred along Hadejia-Gumel road.Mr Muhammad Gidado, the state Commandant, Nigeria Security and Civil Defence Corps (NSCDC), confirmed the accident on telephone.Gidado said the accident occurred when a bus with registration number XB 846 AGB collided with a lorry.He said that the lorry was conveying goats from Gashua in Yobe while the passenger bus was travelling from Gumel to Hadejia.Gidado explained that the two vehicles burst into flames as a result of which the four persons were burnt to death.“We could not ascertain the cause of the accident and the lorry driver was burnt to ashes.“Our men and a team of fire fighters have conducted rescue operation, three corpses have been deposited at the General Hospital, Gumel,” he said.Gidado further stated that eight other wounded passengers were currently receiving treatment at the hospital.

Boko Haram: Army introduces new measures in Borno

The 21 Armoured Brigade of the Nigerian Army in Maiduguri on Sunday said it had introduced new measures to counter Boko Haram attacks on civilians in the state.The acting Commander of the brigade, Col. Ibrahim Yusuf, made the disclosure at a news conference in Maiduguri.He said “I want to assure you that the army is doing everything possible to ensure that no civilian is attacked by Boko Haram in the state because we are here to ensure the safety of all Nigerians.’’He linked the recent attacks on travellers and villagers by suspected Boko Haram militants on highways to frustration.The acting commander said “most times, the Boko Haram members go to remote villages to kill innocent civilians in cold blood because they have been frustrated by the army.“They cannot operate in the open, so they vent their anger on innocent civilians.’’Yusuf, who said that the military was equal to the task, noted that “we cannot be taken by surprise by the Boko Haram, the recent attacks are nothing but signs of weakness.“We are also evolving strategies to make sure that we prevent future attacks, no matter how small.’’He said the army was willing to give  safe passage to members of the sect who wanted to quit.“I want to assure you that we will give a safe passage to members of the sect, including foot soldiers who are ready to surrender.“Those involved can either surrender themselves at any military out post or go to their ward or district head.“Let me say again that all those who surrendered will not be killed but will be given safe passage,” he said.

Policeman, six others dead in Kaduna gun attack, tanker explosion

Two separate incidents in Kaduna, at the weekend, saw the roasting of six persons in an oil tanker explosion and a policeman dead in a gun attack.

The petrol tanker explosion took place at Mararaban, Jos, a community along Kaduna – Zaria road, at the outskirt of the metropolis, while the attack on the policeman was said to have occurred at about 10pm on Friday when some gunmen stormed a checkpoint and opened fire.

The tanker exploded when an articulated vehicle ran into it as it reversed into the busy Kaduna – Zaria Expressway. Eyewitnesses said as soon as the truck hit the tanker, they both went up in flames while the drivers and their passengers were burnt beyond recognition.

Kaduna State Commissioner of Police, Mr. Olufemi Adenaike, who confirmed the incident in which the policeman was shot dead, said a suspect had been arrested and detained while the body of the slain officer was deposited at the St. Gerard Catholic Hospital Kakuri, Kaduna.