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(Nigeria) Former Military Governor of Lagos State  and a chieftain of All Progressives Congress, APC in Adamawa,  retired Brig.-Gen. Buba Marwa, has formally defected to People's Democratic Party, PDP, with his teeming supporters. The decision by Marwa to defect to PDP followed a meeting held on Sunday with his supporters in Yola, Adamawa State, after their  complaint of  being marginalised in the  APC. In his speech,Marwa accused APC's  national leadership of handing over the party in the state to Gov Murtala Nyako. Marwa, who contested the last state governorship election with Nyako under defunct CPC, said his supporters were marginalised during the recent APC membership registration in the state. He noted that as members of the legacy parties that formed APC he would not accept a situation where Nyako, who came from PDP, would just take over the party from "the original founders in the state". Marwa said he would dialogue  with the PDP so as to ensure

(Nigeria) The National Oil Spills Detection and Response Agency, NOSDRA, has sought the collaboration of the Joint Task Force in Niger Delta to tackle environmental pollution caused by oil spills. This is contained in a statement by Mr Henshaw Ogubike, the spokesman of NOSDRA, on Sunday in Yenagoa, Bayelsa State. The statement said that the Chairman, Governing Board of NOSDRA, retired Maj. Lancelot Anyanya, led NOSDRA management on a courtesy call to the JTF Commander, Maj.- Gen. Emmanuel Atewe in Yenogoa. According to the statement, Anyanya as said that the essence of the visit was to solicit the JTF’s support in tackling the menace of oil “spillage caused by third party interference.” It quoted Anyanya as saying that the roles of JTF and NOSDRA were interrelated and thanking the force for providing security for oil installations and the entire region. The statement said that Anyanya commended the force for its effort in dealing with the problem of oil theft which resulte

(Nigeria) The Shell Petroleum Development Company, on Sunday in Yenagoa State blamed the incessant oil spills in Bayelsa on the activities of oil thieves. Shell’s spokesperson, Mr Joseph Obari, told News Agency of Nigeria, that oil thieves were responsible for 80 per cent of the oil spills in Bayelsa State. Obari said the state’s Okordia-Ikarama area was a hotbed of pipeline vandalism, and the spills caused by equipment failure were even remotely linked to activities of the oil thieves. “Shell is committed to a prompt clean-up and remediation of spills impacted sites within its operational base, in spite of the cause of the spill. `The perpetrators’ personal gains are the driving force of the illegal activities. A total of 21 spills have been recorded in the area between 2009 and now. ``Of the number, 17 of them were due to deliberate cutting of Shell pipelines and manifold. The four spills caused by equipment failure occurred at previously-clamped sabotage points, already

United States Secretary of State John Kerry meets his Russian counterpart on Sunday hoping to ease global tensions over the Kremlin's annexation of Crimea and sudden buildup of troops near Ukraine. The latest attempt to resolve the worst East-West standoff in the post-Cold War era follows a sudden call placed by Vladimir Putin on Friday to US President Barack Obama -- the first by the Russian leader since he sent troops into Ukraine's Black Sea peninsula in response to the February 22 fall in Kiev of a pro-Kremlin regime. After the call to Obama who was visiting Riyadh, Kerry decided mid-air to divert his Washington-bound flight home Saturday and travel to Paris instead to meet Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov. Lavrov said ahead of the Paris talks, expected to start at 1630 GMT, that Moscow had "absolutely no intention and no interests in crossing the Ukrainian border". He called on Western powers to back a proposal for Ukraine's Russian-speaking

Palestinians and Arab Israelis commemorated on Sunday Land Day with rallies remembering six of their number who were shot dead during a 1976 demonstration against land seizure. In the northern Israeli town of Arraba, thousands of people turned out for the main demonstration, many waving Palestinian flags, an AFP correspondent said. A smaller gathering also took place in Sawawil, a Bedouin village in the southern Negev desert which is not recognised by Israel, with police saying hundreds participated. The annual Land Day demonstrations are held to remember six Arab Israeli protesters who were shot dead by Israeli police and troops during mass demonstrations in 1976 against plans to confiscate Arab land in Galilee. In annexed east Jerusalem, some 70 demonstrators gathered outside the walls of the Old City by Damascus Gate, throwing stones and chanting slogans, a police spokeswoman said, adding that the rally was quickly broken up and one person arrested. Spokeswoman Luba Sam

(Nigeria) The All Progressives Congress, APC, has strongly warned against any attempt to put pressure on the House of Representatives Committee that is currently probing the disturbing jet scandal involving Minister of Petroleum Resources Diezani Alison-Madueke. In a statement in Lagos on Sunday by its Interim National Publicity Secretary, Alhaji Lai Mohammed, the party said the investigation into the scandal is of great public interest, hence those who are reportedly piling pressure on the House Committee on Public Accounts should back off. It said the allegation that the minister has spent N10 billion of taxpayers' funds to junket around the world in chartered private jets is very serious and cannot be swept under the carpet as the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP-led Federal Government will like to do. ''Scandal is the hallmark of the PDP-led Federal Government and the presidency, hence both may not feel the public anger at the report that a minister, whose most

Eight people were killed and 18 others injured on Sunday in clashes amid the ongoing local elections in southern Turkey, private Dogan News Agency reported. Two people died and nine others were wounded when they were fighting for the election of neighborhood unit in Golbasi village of Kirikhan town of southern Hatay province, according to the report. Six Turkish citizens were killed and five others wounded in exchange of fire between candidates for neighborhood unit and their relatives in southern Hilvan town of southern Sanliurfa province, said the report. Another fight erupted in Hamamoren village of Siverek town of Sanliurfa province between the members of ruling Justice and Development Party, AKP, and pro-Kurdish Peace and Democracy Party, BDP, due to casting vote, leaving four people wounded, said the report, adding that the Turkish Armed Forces reportedly increased measures in the village.