From COBHAM NSA, Abuja -- INTERNATIONAL Monetary Fund (IMF)  yesterday said Nigeria’s fuel woes may not end soon with Benin Republic consuming about 80 per cent of smuggled petroleum products from Nigeria. Also, the fund warned that expansionary fiscal policies by Nigeria will be detrimental given current uncertainty in the global economic scene. Senior Resident Representative of IMF, Nigeria, Mr Scott Rogers said the country must however take advantage of its current growth rate to strengthen her fiscal position and save for the rainy day. Mr Rogers, who presented the Regional Economic Outlook for Sub-saharan Africa in Abuja, said the present situation where smuggled fuel from Nigeria represents about 80 per cent of petrol consumption was an unhealthy development that has persisted in the last two decades. He said the injurious situation would persist given the incentive of high profit derivable from selling the commodity in...

From ELEKWACHI CHINEDUM, Abuja -- THE Federal Government     has charged the various companies involved in environmental pollution as a result of oil spillage to adopt environmentally sound practices and to ensure that reparations are paid to victims of oil spills, including the need to clean up the polluted areas. Minister of Foreign Affairs, Ambassador Olugbenga Ashiru who stated this when a delegation of Amnesty international paid him a courtesy visit in his office also noted that government is holding the oil companies involved accountable for their activities. The minister stressed that Nigeria has had and would continue to have a very good working relation with AI, emphasizing that this fact does not support the allegation of Nigeria’s refusal to cooperate fully with the body. Earlier, the Secretary-General of Amnesty International (AI), Mr. Salic Shetty, expressed dismay about environmental pollution arising from oil ...

From DAUDA MBAYA, Maiduguri -- THE leadership of Jama’atul Ahlis Sunnah Lidda’awati Wal Jihad also called Boko Haram said that they are willing to seize fire and stop all atrocities being perpetrated by their group as well as by some people in their name if Borno State and Federal Government will truly heed to their demands. The acclaimed spokesman of the group, Abu Mohammed Ibn Abdulazeez, who doubles as the second-in-command (Amir) to their leader Imam Abubakar Shekaureason in a tele-conference with journalists in Maiduguri on yesterday said that if the state and the Federal Government want the group to seize fire completely, former Borno State Governor Ali Modu Sheriff must be arrested and prosecuted according to the law of the land. He also said that apart from the arrest of Senator Ali Sheriff, government should compensate the group and rebuild their places of worship which were destroyed during 2009 uprising. Abu Abdula...