The Theatre Commander of Operation Lafiya Dole, Major General Rogers Nicholas on Monday disclosed that twenty-six more members of Boko Haram have surrendered to troops in Borno state. The Commander who paraded the surrendered insurgents stated that they surrendered from Damboa general area of Southern Borno stressing that they also handed over their weapons to the troops.

Former Military President, General Ibrahim Babangida has distanced himself from a statement credited to him and signed by his media aide, Mr Kassim Afegbua.

Babaginda in his rebuttal said the views expressed in the statement are not his views but that of the writer.

Stop Insulting Nigerians: Falana Chides Obasanjo

Human rights activist and senior advocate of Nigeria, Mr. Femi Falana, has urged former President Olusegun Obasanjo to stop insulting the collective intelligence and memories of Nigerians having instituted the culture of impunity in the country.

Falana spoke in Benin on Friday, while reacting to Obasanjo’s special statement last week, which asked President Muhammadu Buhari not to seek re-election next year.

Following the confusion that arose from a counter-statement purportedly issued by former military president, Gen. Ibrahim Babangida yesterday retracting an earlier statement in the day, in which he called for a new generation of leaders to assume the mantle of leadership in the country come 2019, the retired military general spoke exclusively to THISDAY saying that his “original statement still stands”.

Babangida said the second statement was issued by friends and had nothing to do with him, but expressed concern that his initial statement issued by his media aide, Mr. Kassim Afegbua, had been misrepresented by the media.

According to him, what his statement titled, “Towards a National Rebirth,” emphasised was for a new breed of leadership to emerge through the electoral process, but was not intended to deny President Muhammadu Buhari his inalienable right to vote and be voted for in the 2019 elections.

Pastor Bakare Praises Buhari, Jonathan

Pastor Tunde Bakare, the leader of Latter Rain Assembly, has praised President Muhammadu Buhari for embracing the restructuring of Nigeria.

The convener of the Save Nigeria Group (SNG), said that the future of Nigeria lies in restructuring and reformation of the civil service.

The Federal Government of Nigeria has confirmed that 246,355,190 meals had been served to date to primary pupils across 20 states in the country, since the first meal served in December 2016 under the National Home Grown School Feeding Programme (NHGSFP) with eight more states expected to join the scheme in 2018.

According to a statement, the total figure is expected to reach 313,928,420 meals by the last week of February 2018.

Also, the School Feeding Programme now feeds 6,044,625 pupils in 33,981 public primary schools across 20 states.

More states are expected to be added to the programme this year. The NHGSFP plans to implement feeding in a total of 28 States, while it aims to link farmers to school feeding markets.