Sokoto, Nigeria News

By Emmanuel Aziken, Political Editor & Clifford Ndujihe LAGOS - PLANS by the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, to conduct gubernatorial elections in Sokoto and Cross River State within the next two weeks were running into controversy with some stakeholders alleging a breach of the laws in the schedule announced by the commission.

BEFORE the January 27 judgment of the Supreme Court, which reconfigured the polities of five states, including Sokoto, political activities in the seat of the Caliphate were on a languid pace.

In war trivial causes produce momentous events - Gaius Julius Caesar It does not matter by who, what is clear now is that the police, the Nigerian armed forces including the intelligence have failed.

Kabiru Sokoto, who police accuse of masterminding the Christmas Day bombing of a Catholic church in Nigeria, appears before journalists during a news conference at the headquarters of the State Security Service in Abuja, Nigeria, Friday, Feb.

Nigerian police arrested an escaped convict suspected of masterminding a Christmas Day church bombing that killed at least 44 people in an attack claimed by a radical Islamist sect, an official said Friday.

The Sokoto State Police Command has deployed about 5000 policemen to provide security as President Goodluck Jonathan and his Vice, Namadi Sambo visit the state for the flag-off of the PDP governorship campaign today which Alhaji Aliyu Wamakko is the ruling PDP's candidate.

Former Inspector-General of Police Sunday Ehindero yesterday called for the revalidation of the police to tackle insecurity in the country.

Sokoto - 'Area boys' is the local name for political thugs in Sokoto State. They are giving both the security agencies and the residents, sleepless nights.

THE Independent National Electoral Commission yesterday ratified the electoral victory of Muritala Nyako on Saturday that returned him as the Governor of Adamawa State.

ON January 27, the nation's apex court momentarily reconfigured the polities of five states across the country.

The Justice Lawal Uwais Stakeholders Judicial Reform Committee has indicted the National Judicial Council, NJC, of the Justice Aloysius Katsina-Alu era of high handedness and abuse of procedure in its recommendation for the suspension of the Justice Ayo Salami, former President of the Court of Appeal, PCA.

THE All Nigeria People's Party yesterday faulted the new dates for governorship elections in Sokoto and Cross River states announced by the Independent National Electoral Commission on Monday.

The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission has concluded arrangements to pounce on five former governors sacked by the Supreme Court on Friday, SUNDAY LEADERSHIP has learnt.

By AbdulSalam Muhammad, Abdallah el-Kurebe & Ndahi Marama, with agency report KANO- Former Governor of Kano State, Malam Ibrahim Shekarau has blamed his successor, Governor Rabiu Musa Kwankwaso over the poor security situation in Kano, saying that he dismantled enduring policies introduced by him to guarantee genuine peace in theA state.

Fresh trouble appears to be brewing for Chief Timipre Sylva,Alhaji Aliyu Wamakko and Alhaji Ibrahim Idris, three of the five governors, sacked on Friday by the Supreme Court.

THE Boko Haram sect has warned the Sultan of Sokoto, Alhaji Muhammad Sa'ad Abubakar III, to intervene in the release of its arrested members by the police, as failure to do so could lead to attacks and bombings of Sokoto, as it did in Kano on Friday, January 20, 2012.

A spokesman for the Boko Haram Islamist group on Saturday rejected a call by Nigeria's president for talks and threatened fresh attacks if captured members of its group were not freed.

IN Sokoto, the apex court decision was greeted with mixed reactions from supporters of Governor Aliyu Magatakarda Wamakko and those of the opposition parties.

At least 15 village traders were shot dead in northern Nigeria's Zamfara state as they returned from a market on Thursday night.

Nigeria's Supreme Court says it has fired five governors who overstayed their tenures.Justice Walter Onnoghen said Friday that the governors of Bayelsa, Cross River, Kogi, Adamawa and Sokoto states should have left office in May 2011.The ruling-party governors first came into office in May 2007 for four-year tenures, but their elections were ... (more)