• Late Emir’s Will May Decide Winner
EXPECTATIONS are high within the Kano Emirate Council as the four kingmakers work round the clock to produce a successor to the late Emir, Alhaji Ado Bayero, who passed on Friday. The kingmakers are Sarki Abdullahi Mukhtar Madakin Kano, Alhaji Mukhtar Adnan Sarkin Bai Kano, Alhaji Tijjani Hashim Galadiman Kano and Alhaji Aminu Baba Dan’Agundi Sarkin Dawaki Mai Tuta.
The process of selecting a new emir of the ancient city is through exhaustive consultations among the kingmakers with a perusal of the royal records, as well as records of contenders for the throne, after which a voting process will ensue. They will then submit the name of the preferred candidate to the governor, and in this case, Rabi’u Musa Kwankwaso, for final announcement and appointment.
President Goodluck Jonathan on Saturday gave his assurance of providing adequate security for the June 21 governorship election in Ekiti State to prevent rigging and thuggery.
He spoke in Ado-Ekiti after the Peoples Democratic Party’s governorship candidate, Ayo Fayose, received the official flag from the National Chairman, Alhaji Adamu Muazu.
Jonathan, who admitted that he had not visited the state in a long time because there were no projects to inaugurate said he was impressed by the mammoth crowd that filled Oluyemi Kayode Stadium in Ado Ekiti, the venue of the rally.
He said, “We are going to provide adequate security that would enhance one man, one vote. I am not in Ekiti today to convert you because by this crowd, you have shown that you are for the PDP.
Prof. Dora Nkem Akunyili (OFR) was born in Makurdi, Benue State (Nigeria) on the 14th of July 1954 to Chief & Mrs Paul Young Edemobi. She is a devout Catholic and is happily married to Dr. J.C. Akunyili, a Medical Practitioner and they are blessed with six children and three grandchildren. Her hobbies include reading, writing, cooking and travelling. She speaks Igbo and English fluently.
Prof. Akunyili, is an internationally renowned Pharmacist, Pharmacologist, Erudite Scholar, Seasoned Administrator, and a visionary leader.
She has served her country in numerous strategic positions including as Director-General of the National Agency for Food and Drug Administration and Control (NAFDAC) and Federal Minister of Information and Communication.
Former Minister of Information and former Director General of the National Agency for Food and Drugs Administration and Control (NAFDAC)Professor Dora Akunyili has died.
Professor Akunyili died at the age of 59 after a long battle with cancer
Former governor of Anambra State, Mr. Peter Obi, confirmed the death of Professor Dora Akunyili on behalf of the Akunyili family.
Obi in a statement yesterday said: “On behalf of the Akunyili’s family, I wish to officially confirm the death of Prof. Mrs Dora Akunyili in a Specialist Cancer Hospital in India this morning at 10 am, Nigerian time, after a two-year battle with cancer.
“In spite of her illness, she was unwavering in her belief in a better Nigeria that was while she defied her condition and was part of Anambra State Handover Committee and the National Conference.
More chilling revelations have emerged to shed some light on the agonising experience of the missing Chibok girls, based on the account of one of the escapees.
Three of the girls have so far escaped from the terrorist group, Boko Haram, who abducted over 200 girls from a government secondary school in Chibok, Borno State on the night of April 14, 2014.
A clergy and expert on counter-terrorism, Oladimeji Thompson, of The Omoluabi Network, who has been working with other groups to assist victims of the abduction overcome their pains, gave a chilling narration based on an account of one of the escapees.
He said, “One of the girls I interviewed was being raped 15 times by 15 men every day.” He said the girl was traumatised and confused.
“It’s obvious this girl needs to be managed. She looked confused. She found it hard to talk to me but after much prodding, she confessed to me that she was raped 15 times by 15 men throughout the time she was with the Islamic insurgents before she could escape from their den.
WITH the death of the Emir of Kano, Alhaji Ado Bayero, on Friday, the first question Nigerians asked was obviously who takes over from him. Thequestion becomes very necessary given the background of the recent crisis between the Federal Government and the last governor of the Central Bank, Mallam Sanusi Lamido Sanusi. The former CBN governor has never hidden his ambition to be emir of Kano after Ado Bayero. Now that Bayero has bowed out, it goes without saying that prominent likely successors to that throne of influence and prestige would rev up their engine.
Even as the late emir was being buried in Kano on Friday, interested forces pitched tents in making permutations and gauging opinions of the powers that be on who would get the throne.
■ Officers under surveillance. We’ll deal with them- DHQ
There are indeed growing concerns within the mil¬itary on the infiltration of its ranks by agents who leak operational strategies to Boko Haram insurgents that have of late increased their tem¬po of ambush attacks on securi¬ty forces, leaving on their trail high profile casualties on the part of the armed forces.
The concern, which is the subject of a recent intelligence report on President Goodluck Jonathan’s desk, has already brought some military officers, soldiers and other security agents involved “in the chain of opera¬tions against the insurgents” un¬der 24/7 surveillance.
Armed soldiers, said to be acting on “orders from above,” invaded newspaper distribution centres across the country in the early hours of Friday, seizing vans and newspapers parcels.
The operation continued for most of the morning hours.
Reports from virtually all state capitals and major cities in the country indicated that armed soldiers laid siege to distribution centres and to major roads, preventing media houses from conveying their newspapers to buyers.
The military authorities, however, justified their action, grounding it in intelligence reports that newspaper distribution channels could be used to compromise the nation’s security.
