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By Michael Eboh The Federal Government, yesterday, commissioned $150 million, about N30 billion, ultra-modern gas pipeline manufacturing plant. Speaking during the commissioning of the plant and the roll out ceremony of fabricated NNPC gas pipelines by the company in Abuja, President Muhammadu Buhari disclosed that the Federal Government will continue to promote and protect all efforts targeted at achieving industrial growth and improving the socio-economic development of Nigeria. Buhari, who was represented by the Secretary to the Government of the Federation, Mr. Babachir Lawal, stated that the plant is a great milestone in a collective effort to promote and increase local content in the oil and gas sector, would fast-track effort at transferring technology and technical capacity to Nigerian engineers and artisans as well as conserve the country’s foreign reserves. He challenged oil companies operating in the country to, design, develop and produce new specification of pipes t

As Lagos govt seals 15 distressed buildings at Odunfa By Monsur Olowoopejo, Lucky Nwanekwu & Ufuoma Tiveruahor LAGOS—82-year-old Alhaja Misturat Amodu, one of the survivors of the three-storey building that collapsed at Odunfa, Lagos Island, early on Wednesday, died at about 5:00pm same day. This came, as the emergency team intensified efforts to complete evacuation of rubble at the site. When Vanguard visited the scene, the combined team of Police, Army, Nigerian Security and Civil Defence Corps, NSCDC, Lagos State Emergency Management Agency, LASEMA; National Emergency Management Agency, NEMA; federal and state fire service; Lagos State Building Control Agency, LSBCA, and Lagos Safety Commission were on ground to manage the situation. The octogenarian died at the Lagos Island General Hospital a few hours after she was rescued from the collapsed building. Efforts by doctors to save her life from the injury she sustained on her thigh and other parts of her body proved ab

At least 42 people, most of them elderly, were killed when a coach collided with a lorry in southwestern France early Friday, a fire service official said. All but one of the victims were passengers on the coach, while the other fatality was the driver of the lorry, local authorities in the prefecture of Gironde said. The two vehicles collided head-on near the village of Puisseguin north of Bordeaux. The crash is the deadliest in France since 1982. “The French government has fully mobilised after this terrible tragedy,” President Francois Hollande said from Athens, where he is on an official visit. Five passengers — who managed to escape from the coach, which had caught fire — sustained light injuries. Three others were unharmed, local authorities said. Several emergency vehicles were dispatched to the scene. The coach, which was carrying 49 passengers and a driver, had departed early Friday from a village near the site of the accident to take its elderly passengers out on

By Edward Jaleyemi IT would have been disastrous if not for the ingenuity and dexterity of some crack detectives in the Ondo state police command. The detectives foiled a plan by some  robbers who dug a tunnel into the premises of one of the old generation banks in Akure, the Ondo State capital with the intention to bomb and subsequently rob the bank located along  Ado/ Owo road. Robbers-tunnel Observers said if the plan had succeeded, the  perpetrators would have hit a life time jackpot as it would have passed as the biggest robbery incident in the state. The tunnel, according to Police sources, could contain three persons at a time. Consequent upon the foiling of the plan no fewer than 15 suspects have been quizzed by detectives. Those quizzed include farmers and construction workers  within the vicinity of the bank. It was gathered that detectives after the discovery of the tunnel rounded up the suspects and whisked them to the police command for questioning, The state Po

By Edward Jaleyemi Military sources disclosed early today that a suicide bomber blew himself up inside a Mosque during the morning Islamic ‘Subhi’ Prayers in Maiduguri killing 6 persons while 17 others were injured. Confirming the suicide attack, the National Emergency Management Agency said its rescuers evacuated six dead bodies of the victims of the early morning suicide bombing. A senior health worker also confirmed that the 6 bodies have been deposited in the mortuary, while the 17 other injured victims are being treated in Specialist and teaching hospitals in Maiduguri. The mosque is located behind Magistrate Court, Polo Area in Maiduguri. It was gathered that the explosion was carried out by a suspected lone suicide bomber while his two accomplices escaped, when some vigilant members of the community accosted them on their suspicious movements.

The democratic experience in Nigeria has definitely been a continuing learning curve, and the more lessons we learn at various active centres: people, platforms and processes, the richer our democracy, the stronger the society evolves to deliver a brighter future for the sovereign. The greatest residue of our democracy in the last 16 years (1999–2015), I think, is the manner in which our community has been enriched by lessons that have practically changed our lives. The democratic deficit is less than the gain; for us, democracy is essentially liberative and should endure. It is partly the reason why no matter the observed shortcomings of the five-month old Buhari administration, the Nigerian people remain optimistic about their belief in the viability of the democratic option. They know that they have been empowered in such a manner that succeeding governments will always be held accountable to the electorate. Thus, democracy has reframed the national dialogue and the people’s expect

By Edward Jaleyemi For the past 17 years, it has been a kind of graveyard silence for the three warring factions contending the title of Eze Ndigbo of Oyo State when the Igbo Community Development Association ‘crowned’ Dr. Alex Anozie. The three factions were led by Dr. Alex Anozie, Chief James Nduka Oramadike and Chief Alloy Obi. Gov Ajimobi Each of them had been laying claim to the title and this has led to serious legal battles. Though, the battle for recognition subsided shortly before the 2015 general election as the  factions came together to drum up support for the former president at Obafemi Awolowo Stadium, all parties later withdrew into their nests, sharpened their swords and dusted their armour for fresh crisis. Of the three, Dr. Anozie has been brandishing a court judgment by Justice Mashud Abbas of Oyo State High Court on February 18, 2014 which recognised him as the rightful holder of the title. The court declared that Anozie is the subsisting Eze Ndigbo of Ib

By Edward Jaleyemi At least 28 people were killed in a suicide bombing at a mosque in Maiduguri, northeast Nigeria, on Friday, raising fresh security concerns after a wave of similar attacks. The attack happened shortly after 5:00 am (0400 GMT) in the Jidari area of the Borno state capital, which has previously been targeted by Boko Haram militants. Maiduguri has now been hit six times this month, killing a total of 76 people, according to an AFP tally, underscoring an increased risk to civilians after similar strikes in neighbouring states and near the capital, Abuja. Umar Sani, a civilian vigilante assisting the military in the counter-insurgency, and local resident Musa Sheriff both told AFP there were two blasts at the mosque. “People from various mosques nearby rushed to the scene to assist the victims,” said Sani. “I was involved in the evacuation. We counted 28 dead bodies apart from the two bombers, who were identifiable by the mutilation of their bodies. “Over 2