Jonathan denies taking Sheriff to Chad

President Goodluck Jonathan on Thursday denied the allegation that he took the former Borno State Governor, Ali Modu Sheriff, to Chad.

Sherif has been named as one of the sponsors of the Boko Haram sect. He is being investigated in order to know the true position.

The former governor was spotted with President Jonathan when he held talks with the Chadian President, Idriss Deby, in N’Djamena on Tuesday.

But briefing State House correspondents, the Special Adviser on Media and Publicity to the President, Dr. Reuben Abati, said that Sheriff was not on the President’s delegation to Chad.

Pistorius cleared of murder charges

The judge in the Oscar Pistorius trial has ruled out all murder charges, but said he may still be guilty of culpable homicide (manslaughter).

Judge Thokozile Masipa said the prosecution had failed to prove the Olympic athlete killed his girlfriend deliberately in the toilet after a row, prompting tears from Mr. Pistorius.

He cannot have foreseen killing whoever was behind the toilet door, she said.

She added that Mr. Pistorius was an evasive witness but this did not mean he was guilty.

The South African Olympic sprinter denies murdering Reeva Steenkamp on Valentine’s Day last year, saying he thought there was an intruder.

MEND threatens to bomb Lagos judges over unsigned letters

A group claiming to be the Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta (MEND) has given the judges at the probate section of the Lagos High Court 12 days within which to issue letters of administration to its members who applied for it.

The group which decried delay in the issuance of the letters, has threatened to launch coordinated attacks on the houses and vehicles of judges.

The group, in a statement signed by one Commander Wilberforce,  said the planned attacks was informed  by the continued failure of the judges to sign letters of administration of its deceased members years after it has been approved.

The group said it will begin to target and kill the judges if they do not take the necessary step to sign its members’ letters of administration.

Ebola: South African woman arrested at Lagos Airport

I have just been informed that a South African woman identified as Folswe Elizabeth Maria has just been arrested at the Lagos International Airport after showing signs of the dreaded Ebola Virus Disease.

Operatives at the airport arrested the woman when she disembarked from the Air Morok flight.After a quick virus test was conducted on her, report says she showed positive result and was immediately arrested.  She was from Casablanca in Morocco.

Our Airport source said she was quarantined and taken away almost immediately.

Teachers threaten strike over schools’ resumption date

The Nigerian Union of Teachers has threatened to go on strike if the Federal Government fails to put in place measures to protect its members and pupils from contracting the deadly Ebola Virus Disease before the   resumption of schools.

But the Federal Government says there is no going back on the date since there is no scientific basis for schools to remain shut beyond the September 22 resumption date announced by the Minister of Education, Ibrahim Shekarau.

The NUT National President, Michael Alogba, in a telephone interview   with one of our correspondents on Wednesday, stated that the union would not allow   any of its members to teach until it was scientifically and medically proven that the country was out of the Ebola scourge.

The Federal Government initially fixed October 13 as schools’ resumption date but it later announced the new date , saying that the country was almost Ebola-free.

But the new date drew criticism from doctors, activists and civil society groups who alleged that the government was stampeded into announcing it by some powerful school proprietors.

INEC chair has lost credibility, say Southern elders

Southern elders said yesterday after an emergency meeting that the Chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) Chairman Attahiru Jega has lost his credibility.

They called for his removal, saying he was biased in proposing new polling units.

The elders, under the umbrella of the Southern Nigeria Peoples Assembly, queried the rationale behind increasing polling centres when the number of registered voters had reduced from 70 million to 57 million.

The group, however, refused to disclose its next line of action.

It comprises elders from the three zones in the South.

The group said: “As plausible as these reasons may sound to the architects of this voodoo and arbitrary allocation of polling units, the people of Southern Nigeria and indeed the Southern Nigerian Peoples Assembly view this invidious act as a script crafted for Prof. Jega to implement, in continuation of the well known hegemonic agenda, by the enemies of our hard-won democracy.

Boko Haram seeks swap of 30 Chibok girls for 18 chiefs

After a secret negotiation, Boko Haram has agreed to release some of the abducted 219 Chibok girls, The Nation learnt yesterday.

The sect has listed 18 of its key members, who it said should be freed from detention in exchange for the girls.

But there was a snag last night because while the government wanted freedom for all the 219 Government Secondary School, Chibok girls, the sect said it would free only 30. The girls have been in captivity for 149 days.

Boko Haram sent the list of its commanders and the 30 girls to be swapped to a minister, who is also a lawyer, an elderstatesman and a key facilitator of peace with the sect, Comrade Shehu Sani, who is also the President of the Civil Rights Congress of Nigeria, according to sources.

The list, it was learnt, was sent after secret talks between a government delegation and a Boko Haram commander, who is being detained in Kuje Prison in Abuja. But there was no confirmation of this last night.

My plan to defect, a mere rumour -Mimiko

The Governor of Ondo State, Dr. Olusegun Mimiko, has said that his alleged plan to defect from the Labour Party to the Peoples Democratic Party remains a rumour.

He said because of this, he would not want to comment on it.

Mimiko spoke with journalists after he attended the National Executive Committee of the LP, which was held at its national headquarters in Abuja on Wednesday.

“I don’t want to react to that because it is a mere rumour,” he said.

He, however, stated that he would support the second term ambition of President Goodluck Jonathan anytime the president expresses such determination to run.

Lagos to jail Landords, Employers, who reject survived Ebola victims

Any landlord or employer of labour who sacks two patients who survived the deadly Ebola Virus Disease, EVD, in Lagos, southwest Nigeria would face prosecution, this is according to Lagos State Government.

Dr. Jide Idris, the Commissioner for Health in Lagos state made this disclosure on Tuesday, 9 September, 2014, during a news conference at the Bagauda Kaltho Press Centre, Alausa, Lagos

The commissioner added that it is sad that some employers and landlords would want to stigmatise people who were identified with Ebola and survived the disease.

He also said the First Medical Consultant Centre had been certified Ebola-free and that the hospital had been given the clearance to re-open for business, urging Lagosians to patronise the facility as it is safe.

Michael Jackson’s 16-Year-Old Daughter Pregnant

Paris-Michael Katherine Jackson, popularly known as Paris Jackson, who is an aspiring actress and also the only daughter of pop singer Michael Jackson, has been spotted recently with a bulging baby bump.

Although her boyfriend has not been named, IOL reports 16-year-old Paris is expecting a child together after the aspiring actress was spotted sporting a bulging baby bump while on a dinner date recently. An onlooker at the dinner said: “I saw her at dinner and she twice made a toast drinking water instead of wine. That and the prominent stomach bulge got people talking.”

However, it was made known that the lovebirds were spotted checking out engagement rings, and few days later, the news came in that she has been seen with a bulging bump. It would be recalled that the aspiring actress was out of  spotlight for over a year, while she attended therapeutic boarding school Diamond Ranch Academy in Utah after she tried to kill herself.