Thursday's News...

Good morning! its news in brief..

Abducted chibok girls are being held in Gwoza...Freed Victim claims.

More than 200 girls who were abducted by Boko Haram from government secondary school, Chibok, Borno State, in April 2014 are in Gwoza, The Cable, an online medium, on Wednesday quoted Mbutu Papka, a woman who was recently freed after eight months in the sect’s captivity, to have said.

Papka, who made the revelation to the international centre for investigative reporting, said she was transferred from a poor condition in Mdita to a fairly tolerable facility in Gwoza where the abducted girls were being held.

We’ll liberate Gwoza by Friday, says Jonathan

President Goodluck Jonathan on Wednesday expressed the confidence that Nigerian troops will liberate Gwoza from members of the Boko Haram sect latest on Friday.

Once that feat is achieved, he said it would not take the nation more than one week to clean up.

Jonathan spoke while granting audience to a group of international election monitors who paid him a visit at the Presidential Villa, Abuja.

“We believe by tomorrow (Thursday) or latest Friday, we will be able to take over Gwoza. If we take over Gwoza it will not take us more than one week to clean up. Now Boko Haram is not in position to come out and disrupt elections,” Jonathan told his guests.

He recalled that when security operatives advised that elections be rescheduled for security reasons, a number of people thought it was just because of the terror attacks in some parts of the North.

Buhari escapes disqualification

A Federal High Court in Abuja on Wednesday adjourned till April 22 and 23, all the suits challenging the eligibility of the presidential candidate of the All Progressives Congress, Maj. Gen. Muhammadu Buhari, to contest in the March 28 poll.

By implication, the court will not make any judicial pronouncement on Buhari’s eligibility till after the   March 28 and April 11 elections

Justice Adeniyi Ademola, after fixing the new dates for the suits, explained that his decision was informed by the court’s impending Easter holiday and the judges’ conference that would follow.

The judge fixed the new dates without entertaining suggestions from lawyers to the parties.

Buhari planning to send me to prison –Patience

The wife of the President, Patience Jonathan, says the All Progressives Congress Presidential candidate, Maj. Gen. Muhammadu Buhari (retd.) will send her to jail if he is elected.

Patience, who had earlier entertained the crowd of supporters by dancing to household music tracks such as ‘Kukere’ and ‘Personally,’ said the Goodluck Jonathan-led government was a lover of women and youths in the country and should, therefore, be encouraged to continue.

She said, “I want to warn you not to listen to the All Progressives Congress. The APC does not have materials to match what the PDP has on (the) ground. Their candidate was there in governance initially. What did he do? They only sent your fathers to prison.

“They are planning to even send me to prison. Holy Ghost fire! Holy Ghost fire! Holy Ghost fire! They have nothing to offer. They only say ‘I will’, ‘I will’. (SMH..)

FG planning trouble in Lagos, five other states —APC

The All Progressives Congress Presidential Campaign Council has raised the alarm over an alleged plot by the Federal Government to deliberately cause trouble in Lagos and five other states on March 28 in order to avert defeat at the poll.
The opposition’s allegation was contained in a statement by the Director of Media of the APC campaign, Mallam Garba Shehu.
“Credible information available to the campaign from within the Federal Government has revealed that the PDP administration has hatched a plan to destabilise elections in APC states namely, Lagos, Imo, Bayelsa, Rivers, Kano and Sokoto in order to sabotage the presidential election and democracy in the country,” the party said.
Attempts to get a reaction from the Special Adviser to the President on Political Matters, Prof. Rufai Alkali, were unsuccessful. Calls to his mobile telephone indicated that it was switched off.

FG closes land and sea borders for polls


THE Federal Government on Wednesday directed that all land and sea borders with neighbouring countries be closed from midnight of Thursday (today) to the midnight of Saturday to allow for a hitch-free poll.
The Comptroller-General of the Nigeria Immigration Service, David Parradang, who announced this in a statement in Abuja, said immigration personnel had been deployed in land borders to ensure that no illegal migrants entered the country during the election.
The statement by the NIS Public Relations Officer, Emeka Obua, quoted the CG as saying this during a meeting with some embassy officials and leaders of the Economic Community of West African States from Niger Republic, Senegal, Chad, Cameroun Republic, Guinea and Mali.
Parradang cautioned foreigners resident in Nigeria against coming to vote during the elections, adding that any non-Nigerian caught voting would be prosecuted for violating the electoral laws and be jailed.

FG plans ‘troublemakers’ arrest on election eve


There are strong indications that security agencies may clamp down on “troublemakers” ahead of Saturday’s presidential and National Assembly elections.
The PUNCH learnt in Abuja on Wednesday that the “troublemakers” would be arrested based on intelligence reports on “persons of interest.”
The names of the “troublemakers” could not be ascertained as of the time of filing this report, but security sources said they might be arrested on the eve of Saturday’s elections.
One of the sources, who confided in one of our correspondents, said armed security personnel   would also be drafted to streets where the “persons of interest” reside.