Sotunga Taiwo

President Goodluck Jonathan is set to hit the North-East with his campaign train to seek the people’s support for his re-election bid. It’s been 266 days after the President shunned the troubled region following the abduction of over 200 schoolgirls by terrorists in Chibok, Borno State. The Peoples Democratic Party National Secretary, Prof. Wale Oladipo, who spoke with Saturday PUNCH during the week in Abuja, said that the President would visit all parts of the country, including the North-East, to seek the people’s support. The President had cancelled his supposed trip to Chibok on May 16, 2014 to sympathise with the parents of the abducted schoolgirls, who have been missing for the past 257 days. Though his aides, in a statement, later said the President was not meant to visit Chibok that day, the President’s advanced team, according to reports, had visited Chibok in preparation for Jonathan’s visit. But Oladipo told one of our correspondents that no...

Police have released closed-circuit television showing the moment a black teenager appears to draw a gun before he is shot dead by a white officer in a killing that sparked more violent protests in Missouri, Sky News reports. Antonio Martin, 18, was killed at a petrol station in the St Louis suburb of Berkeley on Tuesday night. Authorities said the officer was responding to a shop-lifting call at around 11.15pm when he saw two men and approached them. CCTV video appears to show one of the men drawing and pointing a handgun at the officer. St Louis County Police Chief Jon Belmar said the officer stumbled backwards and fired three shots, one of which struck the teenager. Martin was dead when paramedics arrived, the chief said. Detectives said they recovered Martin’s 9mm pistol at the scene. Following the shooting, a crowd of up to 300 people gathered around the cordoned off forecourt. A wall of police officers, some wearing riot helmets, guarded the scene with bystanders sh...