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As Nigerians continue to experience untold hardship due to current fuel scarcity in the country, the Federal Government has blamed former President Goodluck Jonathan’s administration for the development.

Arsenal star Mesut Ozil has come out in support of Jose Mourinho and believes the 52-year-old, who is tipped to take over at Manchester United, will succeed in his next position. The Portuguese manager was dismissed at Stamford Bridge last week after the Blues won just four of their opening 16 league matches this term.

The Senator representing Ogun East Senatorial District, Prince Buruji Kashamu, has said corruption must die for Nigeria to live. Kashamu, in a statement, said all Nigerians must support President Buhari’s anti-graft war. The senator, who said he was not supporting the war because he planned to switch from the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), added that “corruption by whatever colouration is bad and inimical to our growth as a nation”.

  There is a new twist to the alleged rape case of a 19-year-old teenager, Gbemisola, as she now claims to have framed 24-year-old Kunle in order to punish him. PUNCH Metro gathered on Friday that Gbemisola and Kunle were in an intimate relationship and had sexual intercourse by mutual consent.

Abuja —Former President Goodluck Jonathan yesterday enjoined Nigerians to pray and work for the good of the country, stressing that God would see the nation through its period of hardship. Jonathan stated this yesterday while addressing the congregation at the Word Illumination Ministry in Gwarimpa, Abuja, where the former President, his wife and well wishers had gone to dedicate and thank God for his first grandchild. Jonathan noted that every country has its high and low periods, adding that with dedication and hardwork, nations overcome their problems. The former President also advised Nigerians to endeavor to protect and give their best to their country at all times.

Nigeria may have problems producing Buhari’s successor Lieutenant General Donaldson Oladipo Diya (Retd) was Chief of General Staff, CGS, during the military regime of late General Sani Abacha (1993 – 1997).  Earlier he served under the military regime of General Muhammadu Buhari as Military Governor of Ogun State between January 1984 and August 1985. Born on April 3, 1944 at Odogbolu , Ogun State , Diya was educated at the Methodist Primary School, Lagos , Odogbolu Grammar School, and then at the Nigerian Defence Academy ,  NDA, Kaduna . 

I LORIN —Tragedy struck Sunday afternoon in Ilorin as three persons inside a car were crushed to death by a moving train. Vanguard reliably gathered that the victims, two young men and a lady, were inside a Toyota Camry car with allfour windows wound up when they were crushed by the moving train said to be coming from the north to Offa. With the car’s windows wound up, the three occupants of the car unknowingly parked on the railway line at Kulende area of Zango as they were said to be carried away by what they were doing in the car.

The Central Bank of Nigeria is obviously, currently losing the battle to arrest inflation and the unyielding slide in the Naira’s exchange rate. Regrettably, with inflation persistently closer to 10%, all static incomes have lost over 40% of purchasing values since 2010; thus, the laborer’s N18,000 minimum wage may just be worth less than N10,800 today. Instructively, however, spiraling inflation is, usually, primarily triggered by uncontrolled and liberal money supply. Consequently, monetary authorities in successful economies everywhere, endeavor to keep inflation below 2% by managing money supply!

Twenty female entrepreneurs were recently trained by Skye Bank Plc under the aegis of the Skye Pearl programme to assist them run their businesses efficiently, profitably and professionally. The beneficiaries were the first set of entrepreneurs to be trained under the advisory and training support services for female entrepreneurs, a component package of the Skye Pearl programme, which was specifically developed to cater to the funding and capacity building needs of female entrepreneurs, stay-at-home mothers, among others.

For the alleged killers of the leader of the Boko Haram sect, Alhaji Mohammed Yusuf, freedom came on Thursday as a Federal High Court sitting in Abuja discharged them. The homebound officers — Assistant Commissioner of Police (ACP) J. B Abang, ACP Akera, ACP Adamu Buba, CSP Mohammed Ahmadu and Sergeant Adamu Gado, first to fifth defendants respectively — were discharged by Justice Evoh Chukwu, following a no-case submission filed on their behalf by their counsel, Paul Erokoro (SAN), for the first to fourth suspects, and Mr. Eddie Inegedu, who represented the fifth suspect.

South African telecoms giant, MTN, has filed a suit at the Federal High Court in Lagos to challenge the $3.9 billion fine imposed on it by the Nigeria Communications Commission (NCC), urging the court to quash the fine. last October slammed the telecoms firm with a fine of $5.2 billion for failing to disconnect unregistered subscribers. The initial fine was later reduced by 25 per cent to $3.9 billion earlier this month, with a payment deadline set for December 31.

On the night of 12th December 2015, in the city of Zaria, Kaduna State, Sheik El Zakzaky, the leader of the 10 million-strong Shia muslim community in Nigeria, was shot, brutalized and dumped in a wheelbarrow. He barely escaped with his life but sadly, according to Iranian government sources and the New York Times, his wife, two of his sons and no less than one thousand of his shia muslim followers were not so lucky.