Lai Mohammed: FG Established Links with Boko Haram Thrice for Exchange of Chibok Girls Crusoe Osagie The Minister of Information and Culture, Alhaji Lai Mohammed, has reiterated the federal government’s commitment to rescuing the abducted Chibok girls from Boko Haram terrorists, revealing that the present administration on three
occasions established links with Boko Haram for the exchange of the abducted girls with the arrested members of the terrorist group. The minister’s revelation of past attempts to negotiate
the release of the girls by the Muhammadu Buhari administration confirmed THISDAY’s exclusive report last August that the federal government had made at least two attempts to secure the release of the kidnapped
girls through a prisoner-swap deal, but both attempts failed when no member of the sect or the girls turned up at the appointed place for the exchange. The information minister spoke Saturday night on a
live programme on Channels Television commemorating Nigeria’s Independence titled: “Nigeria at 56: Recursive, Resilient, Rising”, which coincided with 901 days since the abduction of over 200 secondary schoolgirls from
Again, NLC Warns FG, Says Nigeria is Not for Sale… Page 11
their school in Chibok, Borno State. Mohammed stressed that no group, local or international, could claim to have more at stake or was more committed to the rescue of the girls than the federal government. Continued on page 10
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Oil Marketers Want Preferential FX Rate for Petrol Extended to Aviation Fuel Seek dollars to stockpile petrol ahead of Christmas, decry multiple taxation NNPC: Egina to add 200,000bpd to Nigeria’s oil output by 2018 Ejiofor Alike Despite the preferential foreign exchange rate given to oil marketing firms by the international oil companies (IOCs), aimed at sustaining
the importation of petrol into the country, the Major Oil Marketers Association of Nigeria (MOMAN) has decried the non-allocation of the same Continued on page 6
Choice of Akeredolu’s Running Mate Causes Another Stir in APC Tinubu-Oyegun face-off: Again, Deputy Publicity Secretary seeks Buhari’s intervention James Sowole in Akure and Onyebuchi Ezigbo in Abuja With the dust raised over the candidacy of Mr. Rotimi Akeredolu (SAN) as the governorship candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC)
in the November 26 Ondo State gubernatorial poll yet to settle, the choice of Hon. Agboola Ajayi as his running mate has generated a new crisis in the Ondo State chapter of the APC. Continued on page 6
FAYOSE… STRANGE BEDFELLOWS FG Calls for Lifting of Suspension on AREGBESOLA, Osun State Governor and guest speaker, Mr. Rauf Aregbesola (left), and Ekiti State Governor, Mr. Ayodele Fayose, a forum with traditional rulers, leaders, elders, youths and other stakeholders held in Ado-Ekiti, Ekiti State, at the Cocoa Exports to US Market … Page 11 during weekend to mark the 20th anniversary of the creation of the Ekiti State