EMOTIONS ran high, yesterday, at the fully packed main auditorium of the Nigerian Institute of International Affairs, Lagos, when ex-Generals and combatants in the 30-month Nigeria-Biafra civil war lamented that issues that led to the war had not been addressed 43 years after. Reminiscing on their roles in the blood-guzzling campaign to keep Nigeria united,…
Former Head of State General Abdulsalami Abubakar warned yesterday that the political crisis in Rivers State poses a threat to democracy.He also warned that our fledgling democracy may be truncated if politicians in the state and indeed in the country failed to put their house in order and avoid overheating the polity.Gen. Abubakar spoke during…
Former Chief of Army Staff, Lt.-Gen. Alani Akinrinade (retd.), and Brig.-Gen. Godwin Alabi-Isama (retd.), on Thursday faulted former President Olusegun Obasanjo’s Nigerian Civil War account. Obasanjo’s story in his war memoirs, My Command, Akinrinade and Alabi-Isama said, was full of “serious and historical errors” and constituted a “self-glorification.” The former President’s account, the retired military…
Members of the Association of Youths Organization (AIYO), in Onitsha have reacted to the bloody clash with members of the Movement for the Actualization of the Sovereign State of Biafra (MASSOB), last Saturday alleging that fighters who killed four of their members were after them because they were gaining massive popularity and acceptability in Anambra…
Nobel laureate Prof. Wole Soyinka yesterday hinted at the root of the rift between Rivers State Governor Rotimi Amaechi and the Presidency. The elder statesman, who said he had been contacted by both factions before he addressed a joint news conference with activist Femi Falana (SAN) in Lagos, disclosed that the Presidency was unhappy over…
Renowned economist Prof. Pat Utomi yesterday told an Ikeja High Court that the late Umaru Musa Yar’ Adua, Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) Governor Mallam Sanusi Lamido Sanusi
No fewer than 31 suspected terrorists and a member of the youth vigilance group, popularly called ‘Civilian JTF’, were killed yesterday in a clash which erupted in Zagardajeri village on the outskirts of Maiduguri, the Borno State capital. Our correspondent gathered that the incident, which occurred about 1p.m., forced some residents of the village to…
First Lady Patience Jonathan yesterday spoke of her problem with Rivers State Governor Rotimi Chibuike Amaechi. Mrs. Jonathan, who has been linked with the Rivers Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) crisis, told visiting Bishops in Abuja that the disagreement started four years ago. Sixteen Bishops from the Southsouth Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN) visited her at…
Some unusual visitors were at the Government House, Maiduguri, the troubled Borno State capital, on Tuesday night. Fifty in all, the visitors —Orphans all — were guests of Governor Kashim Shettima, who broke his fast with them. They were orphans of Boko Haram victims. Besides the fine meal, they bagged all-round sholarship to pursue their…
Imo State Police Command yesterday recovered more civil war bombs, rocket launchers and other active explosive devices buried during the Nigeria-Biafra war in five local council areas of the state. The recovered explosives include old wartime ammunition from an old military trench in Okigwe Local Government Area, five primed Improvised Explosive Devices (IED) found in…