By Philip Obaji Jr.   More than five years of fighting in north eastern Nigeria has produced a replay of Africa’s catastrophic history. Nearly 10,000 have died and over one million people have been displaced. Many schools have been closed, abduction of girls is on the rise and another ghost of wars past is reappearing: the recruitment of child …

A fugitive task force in Oklahoma tracked down a pastor accused of having s*x with an underage girl. Damien Bonner, a senior pastor at Galilee Baptist Church, was arrested on six counts of lewd mοlestation. Owasso police said that the victim was a 15 year old who was friends with the pastor’s children. According to investigators, church members are …

By Gboyega Adeoye Moji, 15, is the eldest of the six children of Mr. and Mrs. Adeyanju who reside in Ipaja, a Lagos suburb. Both parents lost their jobs to the hurried liquidation of Nigeria’s flag carrier, Nigeria Airways, which finally kissed the dust at the twilight of President Olusegun Obasanjo’s administration. It was a fierce battle between …

50-year-old Isiaka Alade  was led by a teeming crowd, right from the uncompleted building which serves as home for him and his 14 year-old daughter , Sadia,   in Ayobo area of Lagos state, to the palace of the traditional ruler of the area, last Tuesday. From the palace, he was handed over to policemen from the State Criminal Investigation Department …

Soldiers from 144 Battalion, Asa, in Ukwa West Local Government Area of Abia State have rescued 14 pregnant teenagers and eight children from a motherless babies’ home at Umunkpeyi Nvosi in Isiala Ngwa South Local Government Area. Also arrested by the soldiers were six young men, who claimed to be staff of the home, and two girls, aged 16 and 25. …

A 60-year-old bricklayer, Segun Benson, has been accused of raping a primary six pupil on Mommoh Street in the Agege area of Lagos State. In the course of the rape, the victim’s private parts were said to have been damaged. Benson, who has an aged mother, was said to have never been married, while attempts by his mother to get him a wife had continually …

A 14-year-old boy has spent five months in a Kano remand home for allegedly killing a chicken belonging to his step-mother. The boy (name withheld) had a dispute with his step-mum in Wudil local government area of Kano State five months ago, a legal counsel Audu Bulama Bukarti, said. “He was taken to the police station by the step-mum over her chicken …

The fate of a lady, identified simply as Ifeoma, who is believed to be between 16 and 17 years old, has been giving residents of Ilaro, in the Yewa South Local Government Area of Ogun State, a cause for concern. It was said that she had been beaten and impregnated before being dumped in Ilaro, where she had been living beside a building on Upper Leslie …

Mary BY TEMITAYO FAMUTIMI Twelve-year-old Mary Okon was washing a heap of dirty clothes when she sighted her refugee father some 100 metres away. She abandoned the laundry and welcomed her father with a warm embrace. Mary was seeing her father for the first time in the New Year. For two consecutive years running, Mary, a Junior Secondary School drop-out, …