No negotiation, no surrender, Boko Haram tells FG

Abubakar Shekau

A new video was released on Friday by the Boko Haram jihadist group, denying any suggestion that it might negotiate with the Federal Government.

This is coming just about a week after its leader, Abubakar Shekau, said in March that his time as the head of the group might be coming to an end.

The previous video showed Shekau, who appeared thin and spiritless, delivering his message without his usual fiery manner.

Obasanjo, PDP chairman seen together in Enugu

FORMER President, Chief Olusegun Obasanjo on Friday in Enugu had a nice time with dignitaries, including the acting national chairman of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Alhaji Ali Modu Sheriff, where he charged state governors in the country to increase the tempo of their performances in their respective states so as to alleviate the suffering of the people.

PDP: Taking advantage of APC’s failings

, Since the defeat by the All Progressive Congress in last year’s general election, members of the Peoples Democratic Party have been forced to an unfamiliar position of being a party in opposition after sixteen years of calling the shots at the federal level. Gradually but steadily, members of the party, especially its leadership have come to accept that the years of dictating the pace of activities in the country are over; at least in the next three years when there would be another elections and the parties will seek the people’s mandate again. Alimodu-SheriffAlimodu-Sheriff But rather than wallow in self pity, the PDP appears to have be bracing up especially as euphoria that greeted President Buhari’s victory is waning following the harsh conditions Nigerians are now facing. First, after some months of seemingly rudderless leadership,

Police recruitment update: The vital link

TheNEWS reporter tried to open the website of the Police Service Commission at about 9.15 a.m  on Friday and  this time succeeded in getting access.
The PSC has really begun the process to recruit the 10,000 men.
But to access the form, we advice that you bypass both the NPF website and the PSC website and go straight to the portal promised.
Here is the link to the forms and instructions on how to get things done:
http://www.npfcareers2016.net/

US Republicans lay ambush for The Donald

Donald Trump

Mr Donald Trump may be riding high in the US Republican presidential race. He may end up bagging the highest number of delegates to the Republican Convention, but in this insightful piece by Bloomberg, he may go home empty handed without the ticket, because the convention rule books can forge such a scenario…We share the article by Bloomberg ‘ s Kevin Cirilli:
After months of tense dealings with Republican presidential front-runner Donald Trump, the Republican National Committee’s biggest challenge is beginning to take shape: how to navigate a scenario in which Trump leads his challengers in votes and delegates heading into the convention, but loses the nomination.
On Thursday in Washington, RNC Chairman Reince Priebus met with Trump and his inner circle, with the billionaire and his aides inquiring about delegate rules and protocol. Trump is poised to head to the party’s July convention just short of the 1,237 delegates needed to clinch the nomination. His leading rival, Texas Senator Ted Cruz, is already stoking the flames of a “Stop Trump” movement, and organizing an elaborate operation to win every delegate at the Cleveland convention.
Trump has been adamant that the candidate with the most votes and delegates—even if that candidate misses the majority threshold—should be the party’s nominee. In an MSNBC town hall on Wednesday, he described the process as “unfair.”

Youths in Kaduna mark 12 months of blackout with protest

Youths of Janruwa and Bagado communities in Kaduna, on Friday barricaded streets in the city to protest over a one year power outage in the area.
The protesters barricaded the Ibrahim Yakowa Road as early as 6 am, causing gridlock for three hours.
Melchizedek Silvanus, who spoke on behalf of the communities, said the protest was necessary as the Kaduna Electric Distribution Company (KEDKO) had failed to remedy the situation.
He explained that the company removed the transformers serving the communities and had failed to provide new ones.

Police recruitment: NPF, PSC websites down

Police cadets

The websites of the Nigerian Police Force and the Police Service Commission  are down, obviously because thousands of Nigerians interested in joining the police are logging on to access the application forms.
Many attempts made by our reporter this morning failed to access the two sites. While the NPF site http://www.npf.gov.ng. opened partially, the Police Service Commission’s site,  http://www.psc.gov.ng/ just simply refused to respond, indications that the two sites are unable to cope with the upsurge in traffic. Certainly, they were not prepared to handle such huge traffic.
Last night, our reporter visited the two sites effortlessly and found that the free  application forms to be filled by applicants for the 10,000 police jobs have not been uploaded.
Instead, visitors were told to watch out for newspaper advertisements on the 10,000 jobs, approved by President Muhammadu Buhari last year.