INEC releases 2015 elections time-table

According to the timetable, the Presidential and National Assembly elections scheduled to hold on February 14,  2015, will precede elections into the State Houses of Assembly, as well as that of all but four of the 36 states of the federation.

This is because the Anambra State governorship elections was held in November 16, 2013, while the governorship elections for Ekiti and Osun States have been slated to hold on June 21st and August 9th, 2014 respectively.

A statement signed by the Secretary of the Commission, Mrs. Augusta Ogakwu,  in Abuja, also said the commission fixed state assembly and governorship elections for February 28, 2015.

Boko Haram Attacks, Kidnapped Girls Prompt Nigeria's Teachers To Walk Out

MAIDUGURI, Nigeria, May 22 (Reuters) - Nigerian teachers went on strike and staged rallies nationwide on Thursday in protest against the kidnapping of more than 200 schoolgirls by the Islamist Boko Haram sect and the killing of nearly as many teachers during its insurgency.

Boko Haram gunmen stormed a school outside the remote northeastern town of Chibok on April 14, carting some 270 girls away in trucks. More than 50 have since escaped but at least 200 remain in captivity, as do scores of other girls kidnapped previously.

National Union of Teachers (NUT) President Micheal Alogba Olukoya told reporters Boko Haram, whose name means "Western education is sinful," had killed 173 teachers over five years.

In Maiduguri, capital of the northeastern state of Borno where the insurgency is most intense, around 40 teachers marched down a street past rows of cicada trees to the office of Governor Kashim Shettima chanting "bring back our girls" and holding placards saying "vulnerable schools should be fenced".

Shettima came to the gates of the compound to meet the teachers, who were clothed in black union vests over their long, flowing traditional robes and were escorted by the military.

President Goodluck Jonathan and the military have come under intense criticism for their slow reaction to the mass abduction, although last week Nigeria accepted help from the United States, Britain, France and China to help find the girls.

The United States has deployed about 80 military personnel to Chad in its effort to help find the girls, President Barack Obama told Congress on Wednesday.

Boko Haram has threatened to sell the girls into slavery but has also offered to swap them for jailed militants.

"All schools nationwide shall be closed as the day will be our day of protest against the abduction of the Chibok female students and the heartless murder of the 173 teachers," NUT President Micheal Alogba Olukoya told reporters.

Boko Haram wants to create a breakaway Islamic state in a religiously-mixed, Muslim and Christian country of 170 million people, Africa's most populous. Its militants have attacked hundreds of school, killing hundreds of teachers and students.

No teachers were killed in the Chibok attack.

"We remain resolute in our resolve to continue the campaign even as we mourn the death of our colleagues until our girls are brought back safe and alive and the perpetrators of the heinous crime are brought to book," Olukoya said.

UN Security Council Committee Blacklists Boko Haram

The United Nations Security Council Committee on Al-Qaeda sanctions has blacklisted the Boko Haram sect after the insurgents kidnapped hundreds of schoolgirls.
Consequently, the sect is now subject to an international asset freeze, travel ban and arms embargo.
U.S Ambassador to the United Nations, Samantha Power, said that by adding Boko Haram to the U.N’s 1,267 Al-Qaeda sanctions list, the security council has helped to close off important avenues of funding, travel and weapons to Boko Haram and shown global unity against their savage actions.
The U.N listing entry describes Boko Haram as an affiliate of Al-Qaeda and the organisation of Al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM).

Nkiru Sylvanus Responds To Rumour On Romance With Imo Governor

The ever resolute Nollywood actress, Nkiru Syvalnus has finally broken the long observed silence after she gave out her words on the rumour peddled by rumour-mongers over her alleged romance with the Imo state governor, Owelle Rochas Anayo Okorocha.

Chioma Toplis Finally Unveils White Husband’s Photos

After much agitation on if the white-man husband of Nollywood actress, Chioma Toplis ever existed or a mere pronouncement to protect her children as being fathered by someone, she has finally come up with an answer which realistically is an end of discussion to such doubt.

Pope Francis canonizes predecessors John XXIII and John Paul II

Pope John X

Pope Francis presides over mass in front of hundreds of thousands at Vatican

XIII, who reigned from 1958 to 1963 and called the modernizing Second Vatican Council, and Pope John Paul II, who reigned for nearly 27 years before his death in 2005 and whose trips around the world made him the most visible pope in history, were declared saints by Pope Francis at an unprecedented twin canonization on Sunday morning