Friday News In Brief

Good morning! Here are 10 things you need to know this morning according to Daily Post:

1. At least, 185 women have been reported kidnapped by Boko Haram insurgents in Gumsuri, North of Chibok in Borno State. According to report, the insurgents killed about 32 men and set the village on fire with petrol bombs. They reportedly whisked the women and the children away in their pickup trucks into the sambisa forest area.

2. The Central Bank of Nigeria has stopped commercial banks from keeping any part of their funds in United States dollars. This is part of its efforts to reduce the overwhelming pressure on the nation’s currency. The CBN, in a circular issued on December 17, 2014, had asked all commercial banks to avoid reserving one per cent of their shareholders’ funds in dollars as foreign exchange trading position at the close of each business day.

3. President Goodluck Jonathan has disclosed during a christmas carol at the banquet hall of the presidential Villa, that he always receives contradictory advice from authorities each time he makes to take decision on some important national issues. He however said it’s only God who gave him and others the opportunity to rule that can direct and protect them accordingly.

4. Report says out of the 246,853 candidates who sat for the November/December 2014 West African Senior School Certificate Examination, only about 72,522 candidates, representing 29.37 per cent, got credits in five subjects, including Mathematics and English Language. The report says 70.63 per cent of the candidates failed the exams. The Head of the Nigerian National Office, the West African Examinations Council, Mr. Charles Eguridu made the announcement in Lagos yesterday.

5. The All Progressives Congress, APC, has appointed Gov. Rotimi Amaechi of Rivers State as the Director-General of its Presidential Campaign Organisation. The campaign organization is expected to drive support for the party ahead of the 2015 presidential election. This was contained in a statement issued in Lagos, yesterday, by its National Publicity Secretary, Alhaji Lai Mohammed.

6. One time coach of the Super Eagles Adegboye Onigbinde, has disclosed how he personally wrote Super Eagles coach, Stephen Keshi, to quit as a coach of the Super Eagles. The former coach said he was not ready to give further advice on the matter as his initial advice to Keshi was enough to see him give up on the job.

7. President Goodluck Jonathan yesterday chided the nations labour leaders for allowing its unions to embark on what he tagged “unnecessary industrial actions.’’ The president wondered why the Petroleum and Natural Gas Senior Staff Association of Nigeria and the Nigerian Union of Petroleum and Natural Gas workers would embark on a nationwide strike over issues that concern only an oil worker and his employer.

8. The Senior Special Assistant to President Goodluck Jonathan on Media and Publicity, Dr. Doyin Okupe, has said that the ongoing criticism that he committed blasphemy by comparing his principal with Jesus Christ does not hold waters. He said he was right when he made the comparison as Christ himself asked his people to be like him.

9. The 54 soldiers sentenced to death by the Nigerian army had in a statement through their counsel, Mr Femi Falana (SAN) objected to the sentence, saying they were being sent to confront heavily armed Boko Haram terrorists with no corresponding weapons. They argued that it would have amounted to a suicide mission if they had obeyed the Commanding Officer of the Special Forces Battalion, Lt. Colonel Opurum.

10. A Federal High Court sitting in Benin, the Edo State capital, has granted a suit seeking to protect the right of prison inmates to vote in all elections conducted in the country. Justice Mohammed Lima, in his ruling declared that any act by the 1st defendant (INEC) to deny inmates the right to vote was against the law, directing INEC to make necessary arrangement for a smooth conduct of elections in Nigeria prison come 2015.