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•‘Disease not a death sentence’
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VOL. 9, NO. 3044 WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 26, 2014
CBN devalues naira
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From Nduka Chiejina, Abuja
HE battle to save the naira may have been lost, with the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) yesterday devaluing the currency. The move is aimed at curtailing speculations against the currency, which has been battered by the relentless slide in the price of oil. The CBN increased the benchmark interest rate to 13% from 12%. Nine of the 11 members of the Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) voted for the devaluation. The naria is now to trade at N168 to $1 from the previous N155. Continued on page 4
TR UTH IN DEFENCE OF FREEDOM TRUTH
N150.00
Buhari: Jonathan not ready for free polls
•Interest rate now 13%
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•www.thenationonlineng.net
•Gen. Buhari
LL Progressives Congress (APC) presidential aspirant Gen. Muhammadu Buhari yesterday knocked President Goodluck Jonathan administration for the invasion of the APC’s data centre in Lagos. He said the clampdown was a foretaste of things to come in next year’s general elections. Gen. Buhari said the government had shown that it would not conduct “anything resembling free and fair elec-
•APC’s criticism angers PDP From Yusuf Alli, Abuja
tions”. He said the desperation of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) was growing by the hour. The aspirant, who made his position known in a statement in Abuja through his aide, Sabi’u Tunde, asked the Presidency to stop “defending the
indefensible”. The Directorate of State Security (DSS) said it stormed the data centre because it suspected that it was habouring illegal activities. Gen. Buhari expressed regrets that the Federal Government was pushing the nation into chaos. The statement said: “Almost everyday, the Jonathan presidency seems intent on demonstrating for Continued on page 4
•INSIDE: REVOLUTION LIKELY, SAYS AKANBI P5 EKITI HOUSE G-19 REJECTS EXCO P9
Disguised women bombers kill scores in market attack 98 injured in blasts Governor condemns ‘wicked’ bombers
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From Duku Joel, Maiduguri
CORES of people – a figure put at between 45 and 67 – were yesterday killed in a Maiduguri, Borno State capital market after two explosions. There were about 98 injured; about 30 shops and stalls destroyed and at least 25 vehicles razed. Two women suicide bombers hit a densely populated line in the Monday market. Two bombs were detonated, the first one at about 11.20am and the second at about noon by women in hijab, disguising as mothers. As people gathered to assess the impact of the first blast, a second bomb was detonated by a woman who concealed explosives under her “hijab and strapped to her back”, pretending to be carrying a baby, witnesses said. “The woman wrapped the explosives on her back, just like a baby and manoeuvred her way to the scene of the earlier explosion,” market merchant Abubakar Bello told French News Agency (AFP), whose account was supported by three other people “While the people were trying to help the injured, the second bomb blasted,” another witness, Sani Adamu, told Reuters. Health worker Dogara Shehu said he counted more than “45 people killed, some of them completely decapitated” in an account backed up by a witness, who declined to give his name. Another eye witness, Ali Zanna Kumalia, a WILL THE CHIBOK GIRLS traders told our correKIDNAPPED ON spondent that “ around
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APRIL 15 EVER RETURN?
Continued on page 4
•A girl sits beside a man injured in the double bomb attacks...yesterday.
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PHOTO: AFP
The woman wrapped the explosives on her back, just like a baby and manoeuvred her way to the scene of the earlier explosion
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•MILITARY INSISTS ON STATE OF EMERGENCY P5 P577 WHO: 300M ARE DIABETIC P5