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  The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission on Monday called two out of the 18 witnesses it lined up against the National Publicity Secretary of the Peoples Democratic Party, Chief Olisa Metuh, with respect to the charges of money laundering involving the sum of N400m which he allegedly collected from the Office of the National Security Adviser in November 2014.The trial commenced before a Federal High Court in Abuja after the presiding judge, Justice Okon Abang, overruled a request for an adjournment by Metuh’s lead counsel, Mr. Onyechi Ikpeazu (SAN), who had sought time to enable him and his team to have access to some documents and prepare better for the defence. The ruling by Justice Abang, dismissing the request for adjournment, paved the way for the prosecution to call its first witness, Nneka Ararume, an employee of Asset and Resource Management Company Limited, who narrated how Metuh gave her $2m cash at his house in Prince and Princess Estate, Abuja.Ararume, who...

The Deputy National Leader of the Northern Elders Forum, Dr. Paul Unongo, has said that former President Goodluck Jonathan should be probed over the $2.1bn arms deal. Unongo, who was power and steel minister in the Second Republic, said the former President should be jailed if found to have corruptly enriched himself in the $2.1bn arms deal and refuses to refund his share of the loot. Unongo, however, said the former President deserved consideration for conceding defeat in the last general elections and by helping the country to avert an impending national crisis.These two facts, according to him, should make his punishments mild if found guilty of stolen funds. Unongo, who spoke with our correspondent in a telephone interview on Monday, said, “There are three points to make on the arms probe. The first is that Jonathan deserves a special consideration for his contribution to democratic culture in Nigeria and for enabling us to avert a national crisis by conceding defeat during the...

Minister of Power, Works & Housing, Mr Babatunde Raji Fashola has given an indication the federal government may not revoke contracts awarded under former President Goodluck Jonathan. Fashola spoke at the weekend in Abuja at the Nigerian Pension Industry Strategy Implementation Roadmap meeting. He expressed disgust over the culture of every successive government revoking contracts of previous regimes saying that the practice destroys investor confidence in an economy. The minister noted that even where the government of the day finds anomaly in a contract awarded by a past administration, the best approach was to renegotiate the contract to get a better deal rather than outright revocation. According to him “We must not play politics with our economy. Investors want continuity.” He noted that the country must not play politics with economic survival stressing that investors want continuity of policies, even if government changes.

  The management of National Assembly has finally deleted the bio-data and photographs of former Senate President, David Mark and eight other senators from its website, our correspondents report. Twice, our correspondents had reported that Mark and 11 other senators that were sacked from the senate last year by the Court of Appeal were being paraded as serving lawmakers on the website of the National Assembly.Mark had been at the National Assembly since 1999, representing Benue South Senatorial District until November last year when his election was nullified. He was Senate President from 2007 until his party, the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) lost control of the senate in 2015. Checks on the website of the National Assembly yesterday showed that the bio-data and photograph of Mark who is set to contest with Daniel Onjeh, the All Progressives Congress (APC) candidate in the February 18 re-un election has been removed. Also, the photographs and bio-data of Uche Lilian Ekwun...

  The Executive Director, the Geneva Press Club, Guy Mettan has disclosed that former President, Dr. Goodluck Jonathan, will on Wednesday, hold a world press conference in Geneva, Switzerland.The press conference, which holds at 3pm local time, is part of activities lined up by the Circle of Diplomats (Circle Diplomatique), Geneva in his honour, which would be concluded with a dinner same day at the Intercontinental Hotel, Geneva. According to a statement by Guy Mettan, Jonathan will address two most crucial topics in Nigeria and West Africa at the press briefing: security and civil peace in Nigeria and West Africa; and improvement of health and education of children. Meanwhile accredited United Nations correspondents and Swiss journalists are expected at the press conference, which will most likely see Jonathan talking about Boko Haram activities in Nigeria and the fight against insurgency.

   The Presidency, weekend, asked Ijaw communities in Gbaramatu Kingdom, Warri South-West Local Government Area, Delta State, where ex-militants carried out a three-day bombing of crude oil and gas pipelines some weeks ago, to hand over to the security operatives, perpetrators of the bomb attack believed to be hiding in their areas. The presidency also urged the communities not to entertain fear of bombardment by security agencies, but to demonstrate patriotism by handing over suspects behind the recent bombing. The Presidential directive came through the Special Adviser to the President on Media and Publicity, Mr. Femi Adesina, yesterday, just as the JTF, which boasted, penultimate week, that it was closing in on the perpetrators, started arresting more suspects for interrogation at the weekend.The crackdown on the suspected bombers by the task force heightened tension in most Ijaw communities with some leaders, the Ijaw Youth Council, Ijaw Peoples Development Init...

 The embattled leader of the Islamic Movement of Nigeria, Sheikh Ibrahim El Zakzaky, was flown out of Nigeria for treatment of gun shot injuries he suffered during the encounter between his supporters and members of the Nigerian Army last year, multiple security sources revealed in Abuja yesterday. It will be recalled that during the bloody encounter between the Shiites and the Nigerian Army, several members of the sect were killed, while many others sustained various degrees of injuries with some still on admission at Ahmadu Bello University Teaching Hospital, Shika near Zaria. The fracas occurred when members of the sect allegedly blocked the Zaria-Sokoto road and prevented the convoy of the Chief of Army staff from passing through, despite several entreaties. Sheikh El-Zakzaky allegedly sustained several gun shot wounds, with some reports claiming that one of his eyes was affected during the encounter. Several security sources who are knowledgeable in the matt...