Military claims victory in Monguno

                                                Director of Defence Information, Maj.-Gen. Chris Olukolade

Troops of the Nigerian Army have completely secured Monguno, Marte and other communities in the north of Borno State from Boko Haram occupation.

The members of the Boko Haram Sect had launched a massive attack on Monguno from different directions and captured the town on January 25, 2015.

The Director of Defence Information, Maj. Gen. Chris Olukolade, said in a statement on Monday that a combined operation spearheaded by the Air Force had completely cleared Monguno, Marte and other towns in the general area of terrorists.

OBJ, a shame to the military —DHQ

                                                                      Former President Olusegun Obasanjo

The Defence Headquarters has described former President Olusegun Obasanjo as an embarrassment to the military institution.

The Defence Headquarters made the comment in a statement posted on its Facebook page while reacting to a statement credited to the former President that the General Elections were postponed to enable the President to use the Service Chiefs for tenure extension in an electronic mail on Monday.

The Defence authorities accused the former President of politicising serious national security and military issues.

It was said that while Obasanjo’s intentions remained unclear, his motives for making such utterances were less than noble.

Jonathan, Buhari are ‘problematic’ candidates, says Soyinka

                                                                       PROF. WOLE SOYINKA

Nobel Laureate, Wole Soyinka, has criticised the two frontline candidates in the March 28 presidential election, President Goodluck Jonathan of the Peoples Democratic Party and Maj. Gen. Muhammadu Buhari (retd.) of the All Progressives Congress.

Soyinka, in an interview with the BBC on Monday, insisted that the political parties should have come up with far better options than the two leading candidates.

He described President Jonathan, who is running for a second term and the opposition leader, Buhari, as “problematic candidates.”

“There is a huge albatross hanging [around] the necks of the two main candidates. I can understand the dilemma which many voters have,” Soyinka said.

Drama as Obasanjo quits PDP after 16 yrs

                                                                                 Former President Olusegun Obasanjo

Former President Olusegun Obasanjo on Monday finally dumped the ruling Peoples Democratic Party by asking that his membership card be torn.

But almost two hours after he did that, the Ogun State PDP executive council, headed by Chief Adebayo Dayo, announced his expulsion from the party over what it termed his “series of unabated anti-party activities.”

The former President was hosting the executive and members of the party from Ward 11, Abeokuta North at his Hilltop residence when he announced that he was dumping the PDP.

Jonathan postponed elections to frustrate Buhari – NY Times

                                              Former Head of State, Gen. Muhammadu Buhari (retd.)

The United States-based New York Times says the postponement of the elections by the Independent National Electoral Commission was orchestrated by President Goodluck Jonathan to frustrate Maj. Gen Muhammadu Buhari (retd.) of the All Progressives Congress.

The newspaper, which has won 114 Pulitzer Prizes, further stated that Jonathan appeared to be afraid of the increasing popularity of Buhari, who most Nigerians would likely vote for.

It said this in the editorial of its Monday edition titled, “Nigeria’s Miserable Choices”.

The publication said, “Any argument to delay the vote might be more credible if President Goodluck Jonathan’s government had not spent much of the past year playing down the threat posed by the militants and if there were a reasonable expectation that the country’s weak military has the ability to improve security in a matter of weeks.