Three convicted criminals on death row for about two decades have been secretly executed in the first hangings in Nigeria since 2013, human rights lawyers and a fellow inmate said Thursday. The executions breach a seven-year moratorium on the death penalty in this West African country. The hangings went ahead despite outstanding appeals, making them "unlawful killings," Chino Obiagwu of the Legal Defense and Assistance Project told The Associated Press. Debate about the death penalty has revived recently in Nigeria, with some calling for people convicted of gross corruption to get a death sentence. Obiagwu said the three inmates were…

Abia House of Assembly on Thursday, elected a news Speaker, Hon. Kennedy Njoku, representing Osisioma-Ngwa North Constituency. Njoku’s election followed the removal of Speaker, Rt. Hon. Martins Azubuike, representing Isialangwa North Constituency. Deputy Speaker of the House, Hon. Cosmos Ndukwe, who presided over the plenary, said that 20 out of 24 members signed the impeachment notice against Azubuike. During the election conducted by the Clerk of the House, Mr. John-Pedro Irokansi, Njoku, polled 17 votes to defeat Chikwendu Kalu, representing Isialangwa South Constituency, who polled three votes. Deputy Leader of the House, Hon. Solomon Akpulonu, representing Obingwa East Constituency, who…

Governor Nyesom Wike has raised alarm over alleged plot by his political enemies to bomb his plane, saying that the alleged evil plot will fail. The governor spoke Thursday in Port Harcourt at an end of year party by his Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in the state. Continuing, he said the alleged plot to bomb his plane was part of desperation on the part of his detractors to eliminate him, stressing that no man can destroy whom God had lifted. He said his political opponents were unhappy with the successes recorded by his administration since he came on board, adding…

Boko Haram fighters fleeing an attack on their base last week may have used some of the girls kidnapped in 2014 from northeast Nigeria's Chibok as human shields to prevent being fired upon by fighter jets, a military commander said on Wednesday. Major General Lucky Irabor, theatre commander of Nigeria's military campaign against the group, showed a news conference aerial footage he said was filmed during the operation in the Sambisa forest that showed Boko Haram fighters moving with women and children. "The haggard fighters were just using them as a shield," Irabor told reporters in the northeastern city of…