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Gunmen, suspected to be cult members, have killed a middle aged beer parlour operator in Iree, Osun State.

The victim, Ekundayo Awotunde, was said have been expelled from the Osun State Polytechnic, Iree, about seven years ago.

A source, who pleaded anonymity, said the victim was in his shop, located at the Oris area of the town, when the attackers stormed his shop, and shot several times at point blank range. He was, however, rushed to the Ladoke Akintola University Teaching Hospital, Osogbo, where he gave up the ghost.

“It was around 6pm on Monday when Awotunde was offloading cartons of beer from his red Kombi Volkswagen van. These strange men came and pumped bullets into him,” the source said.

Awotunde, a native of Ipetumodu, was said to have had a fight with some customers in his shop few weeks before his death.

His wife was said to have reported the case to the police.

Meanwhile, students living around the area where Awotunde was killed have fled their homes for fear of reprisal attack by suspected cultists.

However, spokesman for the Osun State Polytechnic, Iree, Mr. Tope Abiola, said the victim was never a student of the school.

According to him, Awotunde’s name was not in the school’s records, saying his death has nothing to do with the polytechnic.

The state police command could not be reached to comment on the murder as the Police Public Relations Officer, Folashade Odoro’s cell phone was switched off.

An Ikeja High Court, yesterday, admitted 20 documents as exhibits in the trial of Sebastine Adigwe, a former Managing Director of the defunct Afribank Plc.(now Mainstreet Bank), over alleged stealing.

According to agency reports, Adigwe is accused of stealing N87.5 billion belonging to the bank.

He is standing trial alongside five other former directors of the bank —  Osa Osunde, Isa Zailani, Chinedu Onyia, Henry Arogunde and Peter Ololo.

The six defendants are being prosecuted by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC).

The documents admitted as exhibits were tendered by EFCC counsel, Mr Abubakar Mahmud (SAN).

Justice Olabisi Akinlade admitted the documents as Exhibits P1 to P20.

Mahmud had told the court that the documents detailed a loan facility of N15 billion granted by Afribank to a stock brokering firm, Rehoboth Assets Management Ltd. in September, 2008.

The counsel, then, called the prosecution’s first witness, Mr Ndubuisi Osakwe, a staff of Mainstreet Bank, to testify about the transaction which took place while he was the Head of Special Project of Afribank.

Osakwe, who is currently the Group Head, Energy Department of Mainstreet Bank, said that the loan was granted to Rehoboth for the purchase of Afribank shares from the capital market.

He testified that the purpose of the transaction was to protect the bank from hostile attacks by some investors who were planning to take over its management.

Oyo State Universal Basic Education Board (SUBEB) has distributed instructional and recreational mate

rials to all public schools in the state, as a means of boosting the Early Child Education{ ECE) programme.

Executive Chairman of the board, Dr. Busari Adebisi, disclosed this during the distribution of instructional and recreational materials to all the education secretaries who represented the 33 local government areas in the state.

The chairman said the success of  UBE programmes hinged, not just in providing an increasing number of children and young adults access to education, but also to guarantee a qualitative education that ensures the acquisition of relevant and sustainable skills that could be achieved by empowering the teachers with relevant adequate tools to train the children.

According to the chairman, “having realised this, the state has intensified its efforts in providing the necessary learning aids textbooks for our schools.”

The SUBEB boss also said, “just like Early Child Education{ ECE} is seen as the education given to children between age 0-5 prior to their entry into basic schools, its purpose is to promote smooth transition from home to schools.”

Ronnie schools, Ojodu, Lagos, in partnership with the

Lagos State Educational Resource Centre, has embarked on training of teachers on production and utilisation of instructional materials at the centre’s ultra modern complex, located at Oba Ogunnusi Road, Isheri Ojodu Berger, Lagos.

The training is in line with the school capacity-building programme, aimed at providing school teachers with solid foundation for their teaching practice and help students build confidence and critical skills.

The programme is part of activities the school has lined up to prepare both teachers and students for the current academic session. Other activities include: improved learning environments, reviewed curriculum, additional education infrastructures and sporting facility. These standards encompass the many aspects of the school’s core value, including relationship, openness, naturalness, novelty, integrity and excellence.

Women have been banned from coming to Sunday service in St Theresa’s Catholic Cathedral Parish, Nsukka with big-head gear and hand bags.

This is with a view to guaranteeing the safety of church members from bomb attacks.

The Catholic Diocese of Nsukka has said that the recent ban was in order.

Monsignor Taddeo Onoyima, the Vicar-General, in an interview with The Nation in Nsukka said it has become imperative, considering the continuous activities of Boko Haram members in targeting places of worship.

“It has become imperative that the church becomes wiser in handling the insecurity posed to it by the Boko Haram sect, so we deemed it fit to outlaw the wearing of head gears and carrying of hand bags to church.

“They may disguise themselves as women and smuggle bombs inside the church.”

Onoyima who doubles as the chaplain of St Peter’s Catholic Church University of Nigeria, Nsukka commended the move by the administrator of the cathedral.

“I commend Rev. Fr. Uche Obodochina, the initiator, for his foresight in putting in place a measure for the safety of members, we are all aware of the menace of Boko Haram in the country for some time now.

“The move is welcomed, given the security challenges in the country,” he said.

He, however, applauded the Federal Government’s efforts, in tackling the Boko Haram insurgency, but urged it to do more to ensure that the activities of Boko Haram is eradicated.

“It is incumbent on government to protect lives and property of citizens which I know they have been doing to stop the activities of these terrorists. However, they must work harder to end the present security challenges facing the county.

According to him, this restriction on women had been enforced in St Peter’s chaplaincy earlier before that of the cathedral.

“It is aimed at ensuring security as well as instilling moral discipline among church members,