News Desk Sunday, September 2, 2007

N628m Contract Scam: National Assembly Top Officials Disown Speaker

ALMOST one week after the embattled speaker of the House of Representatives, Mrs Patricia Olubunmi Etteh, reportedly, directed the management of the National Assembly to come out with a statement in defence of the N628million contract scam rocking the House, the top officials have practically dissociated themselves from the contract for fear of implicating themselves. MORE>>>

Voters Have Right To Protest If Shortchanged At Poll - Cardinal Arinze

Vatican cleric, Nigeria‘s Cardinal Francis Arinze on Saturday said voters in the country had a right to protest if they felt shortchanged during an election. Arinze, who heads the Congregation of Divine Worship and the Disciple of the Sacraments in the Vatican, spoke with newsmen at the Cathedral of the Holy Trinity, Onitsha, Anambra State, on Saturday shortly after he delivered a lecture titled, ”Leadership as Service: The Nigerian Experience.” MORE>>>

Obasanjo Vs. Press: Who Is To Blame ?

The immediate former President, Chief Olusegun Obasanjo, made a pathetic statement recently when he openly confessed (The PUNCH, 21-08-07) that reading Nigerian newspapers was not part of his business. Reason? The press, according to him, is in the habit of ”abusing” him all the time. Comparing himself with Jesus Christ, Obasanjo took solace in the fact that even Christ Himself, according to him, was also maligned and eventually ”crucified for no other reason than doing good.” MORE>>>

Why I Fell Out With Awo

Former governor of old Ondo State, Chief Akin Omoboriowo has spoken about his bitter departure from the Unity of Nigeria (UPN) and his subsequent separation from his political mentor and Yoruba sage, Chief Obafemi Awolowo in 1983. MORE>>>

Ekweremadu: Nigeria Gets New Constitution Next Year

Deputy Senate President, Senator Ike Ekwerema-du at the weekend in Abakaliki said the Nat-ional Assembly has decided to initiate a constitution review process which will culminate in the passage of a new constitution for the country next year.
Addressing a special session of the Ebonyi State House of Assembly during a two-day visit to the state, Ekweremadu said the process of producing a new constitution would begin later this year with wide consultations across the six geo-political zones. MORE>>>

The Port Harcourt Situation

THE Niger delta, once also called the oil river, is an intriguing theatre of history. Its complexity resonates in the various struggles to subdue and maintain hegemony over it, as the epicenter of international trade, dating back to the fifteenth century, when it was one of the major ports of the global trade in slaves, followed by palm oil. Far less discerning Nigerians who buy into the current rhetoric by economic conjurers often imagine that “globalization” is a recent thing that began with computers and the World Wide Web. MORE>>>

Man Runs Amok, Beheads 5 Women

Great calamity has befallen the Mbaise community in Imo State where five women of the same family were beheaded at the weekend in Amukwu Onicha , Ezinihitte local government area, by a 30- year- old man, Bartholomew Uzoegbu, whose state of mental health is a subject of controversy. MORE>>>