Lightup Concepts

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.

According to Punch,  Security was quickly beefed up around the Presidential Villa, Abuja on Sunday morning as heavy shootings were recorded at the neighbouring headquarters of the State Security Service known as Yellow House. The SSS headquarters is located behind the Villa. The access gate to the seat of power through the Fire Service office in Asokoro was quickly shut while more heavily armed soldiers were seen at the gate leading to the Villa through the Federal Secretariat. Military helicopters were also seen hovering the sky at the time of filing this report. Our correspondent who attempted to access the SSS headquarters area through the Aso Drive was turned back alongside other motorists in front of the Millennium Park by armed SSS operatives. An operative who pleaded anonymity told our correspondent that trouble started earlier in the day when one of the suspects in the service’s custody overpowered an operative who was in his cell to feed him. The suspect was ...

1. Accuses Them Of Non-performance, Bad Leadership 2. Says Govs Failed On School Enrolment Despite FG’s Support 3. ‘Manage Your Insecurity; I Handled Mine As Governor In Bayelsa’ BARELY two weeks after 12 Northern governors, who visited the White House in the US, accused him of escalating the Boko Haram crisis ahead of 2015 presidential election, President Goodluck Jonathan, Saturday, reacted with a counter allegation, saying the governors have failed in school enrolment and other parameters of governance.    Blaming them for the security challenges that have bedeviled the Northeast region since 2010, the President, who was in Bauchi for his People Democratic Party’s (PDP) North East Zonal unity rally at the Abubakar Tafawa Balewa Stadium, said the governors have performed poorly and failed to send their “children to school.”     The President pointed to non-performance in viable projects that would have improved the income of the common man.   ...

The UK Foreign Office has advised British citizens in Abuja to maintain “heightened vigilance’’ following the foiled jailbreak at the Abuja headquarters of the Department of State Services (DSS). The revised travel alert on Nigeria was posted on the Foreign Commonwealth Office (FCO) website on Sunday. It was updated few hours after the DSS confirmed that it had foiled an attempted jailbreak by insurgents detained at the Asokoro headquarters of the security outfit. The travel alert advised British citizens to be especially vigilant “should they need to go to Asokoro or The Three Arms Zone’’ in Abuja. The statement read in part: “On the morning of March 30, there was an incident involving exchange of gunfire within a Nigerian government compound in the Asokoro area in Abuja. “The incident was brought under control swiftly, and the Nigerian Government has now confirmed that the incident is over and has declared the area safe. “We recommend that British citizens maintain...

The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge (aka  Prince William  and  Kate Middleton ) just released a brand new photo of their adorable baby boy at eight months ... and he's sooooo cute. Wearing a baby blue sweater and looking at the family's dog,  Lupo ,  Prince George  is seen posing for a photo with his parents at  Kensington Palace  on March 18, 2014. This is only the third official family portrait since the baby's birth in July 2013. Photographer  Jason Bell also took the last pic of Prince George at his christening back in October. Will and Kate will be heading to Australia and New Zealand in April for a three-week tour with their little guy, who will make a public appearance on April 9 at an event for new parents and babies. We can't wait to see more of the royal baby, he's adorable!

The Federal Government would complete the ongoing rehabilitation of the Port Harcourt to Maiduguri rail line by the end of 2014. The Minister of Information, Mr Labaran Maku, announced this at the PDP North-East Zonal Rally in Bauchi on Saturday. He said that the Lagos to Kano line was completed last year. He added that government was determined to revive the agricultural sector through encouraging the shift from subsistence to commercial production. He added that this had attracted a private firm to invest 40 million dollars in rice production in Taraba for domestic consumption and for export. “The project has taken off,” he said. According to him, the Federal Ministry Agriculture has undertaken massive intervention to make the North-East zone the lead producer of cotton and sorghum in the country. “Farmers in the zone have been supported to produce cotton, sorghum, tomato and other vegetables due to their rich agricultural heritage. He said farmers’ income in the z...

More than one million people have been forced from their homes by the ongoing conflict in South Sudan, the UN says. Of these, 803,200 have been displaced within the country, and another 254,000 have fled to neighbouring countries, according to the latest UN report. It warns that the situation is likely to get worse as the violence continues. Fighting erupted between the forces of President Salva Kiir and troops loyal to his former deputy, Riek Machar, in December. The two sides signed a ceasefire agreement in January, but sporadic fighting has continued. Food security In its report, the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) said the conflict had caused “a serious deterioration in the food security situation” leaving around 3.7 million people at high risk. “Fighting between government and opposition forces has continued, especially in Jonglei, Unity and Upper Nile state, where towns and rural areas have been ravaged by the violence,” it added. The UN...

According to Vanguard, Everybody who got to the ‘evil forest’ in Ibadan, Oyo State capital where hundreds of people have been killed by kidnappers was stunned to speechlessness seeing the number of decomposed bodies of victims. Call the place the Soka house of horror, a den of killers, the place of skull, the evil shrine, the valley of dry bones, killers’ hideouts, you will not be wrong. No adjective or description is too much to express the horror there. In the isolated bush, life is hellish, brutish, loutish and nasty. It is distasteful, barbaric and fetish. It is better read and heard than seen. If you go there once, you could find it difficult to have your meal. Flies of different sizes and colours were feasting on the bodies. The bodies were in different positions. The odour was unbearable. The land brings to mind David’s statement when he heard about the death of his bosom friend, Jonathan, “Tell it not in Gath or publish it in the streets of Ashkelon; lest the daughters o...