The ongoing strike of the Academic Staff Union of Universities, ASUU took a different turn on Saturday at the Dutse-Alhaji area of Abuja when a female student of the University of Abuja made to hang herself in protest of the nearly four months old strike.
The female student identified as Jane Okoro had already hanged herself, but fell off the ceiling while struggling, apparently because the rope she used was not strong enough.
Jane had sent her two younger brothers on an errand, just a way of sending them out of the house to be able to carry out the abominable act, but one of the brothers returned after 15 minutes and saw her on the floor with a rope tied round her neck while another rope dangled from the ceiling fan. The 15 year old boy raised the alarm, thinking that his sister was dead, attracting neighbours and other onlookers into their compound. However, it was discovered by those who got there first, that Jane was alive as it was only a suicide attempt.
The boy, who was identified as Andrew had told our correspondent that the sister was behaving so strange throughout that morning. He said, ” She was to go to the market with my mum, but said she was not feeling too well. While we were at home with her, she refused to talk. She was always on her Blackberry. Shortly after she had her bath, she sent us to First-Gate (market), but I left some money I wanted to use to buy my personal stuff at home, so upon return, I saw her on the floor of our parlour. I even thought she was dead, so I shouted.”
Meanwhile, the mother who returned from the market immediately after the news got to her had told our correspondent in tears that, her daughter must have attempted to commit suicide because of the ongoing ASUU strike. She said, I will ask her questions on why she wanted to do this to us. She has been complaining to me about this ASUU strike. She said, at her age, she should have been done with school, and begin to take care of the children and I. Her father is late. I know that only this week, she had complained to me up to 6 times on how frustrating this strike has been. I know other things may have contributed, but ASUU strike may have contributed the most; but for whatever reason, it was devilish for my daughter to have attempted suicide.” She said.
Asked what she was going to do about the situation, she said ” I will take her to my Pastor this evening. She needs prayers. We need somebody to talk to her. God will do the miracle for me. I didn’t do anything to anybody. I must not suffer for nothing. She is already in her third year in school. What would I have done if this had happened?”

TRENTON, N.J. — Gov. Chris Christie dropped his legal challenge to same-sex marriages on Monday, removing the possibility that the vows of couples who began getting married hours earlier could be undone by a court.
New Jersey became the 14th state to allow gay marriages Monday, three days after the state Supreme Court unanimously rejected Christie's request to delay the start of the nuptials. He has said residents, not a court or legislators, should decide on the issue.
"Although the governor strongly disagrees with the court substituting its judgment for the constitutional process of the elected branches or a vote of the people, the court has now spoken clearly as to their view of the New Jersey Constitution and, therefore, same-sex marriage is the law," Christie's spokesman Michael Drewniak said in a statement. "The governor will do his constitutional duty and ensure his administration enforces the law as dictated by the New Jersey Supreme Court."
The announcement was unexpected from a Republican governor who is a possible 2016 presidential candidate and has for years opposed gay marriage while supporting the state's previous civil union law.
It was met with jubilation from gay rights advocates including Steven Goldstein, the founder and former leader of Garden State Equality, who asked "How much happiness can I stand?" Conversely, the legalization of gay weddings was scorned by conservatives like National Organization for Marriage President Brian Brown.
"This is just another example of the courts making law out of thin air," he said. "Obviously, Christie should have continued the lawsuit."
Brown said his group could look into whether it could continue the legal fight that Christie dropped but said he doubts the courts would allow anyone to intervene.
Even so, Goldstein said, advocates of same-sex marriage still have work to do. He said lawmakers must adopt a law codifying same-sex marriage to clarify three points that are left unaddressed in court decisions. The court rulings do not say whether civil unions should be converted to marriages, does not say whether religious organizations such as the Knights of Columbus can reject hosting weddings on their property and does not spell out whether legal out-of-state marriages of gay couples are automatically recognized in New Jersey.
Last year, the state Legislature passed a law to allow gay marriage and deal with those issues, but Christie vetoed it.
Advocates have been making a major push to override the veto before a Jan. 14 deadline. Before Christie's announcement Monday, they were expecting a vote by lawmakers sometime after the Nov. 5 election.
New Jersey's courts and politicians have been deliberating over whether to allow gay marriage for more than a decade. The answer has changed quickly in the past month.
In September, a state judge ruled that New Jersey must allow the nuptials in light of a U.S. Supreme Court ruling that made the federal government recognize same-sex marriage.
The state's top court ruled Friday afternoon that it would not delay Monday's implantation date.
And at 12:01 a.m., couples in a handful of communities wed.
In Newark, Mayor Cory Booker, in one of his last acts before joining the U.S. Senate in coming weeks, led a ceremony for seven gay couples and two heterosexual couples.
"Tonight we have crossed a barrier, and now, while you all have fallen into love, I want to say that the truth is, that the state of New Jersey has risen to love," he said. "This state now is resonant now with the core values of our county, with the idea that there is no second class citizenship in America, that we're all equal under the law."
In Lambertville, Joanne Shcailey and Beth Asaro were wed in a municipal courtroom packed with friends, family and journalists.
"We're floating on air," Asaro, in a salmon pink suit, said afterward. "It's like winning the Super Bowl," said Schailey, who wore a black suit.
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Mulvihill reported from Haddonfield. Associated Press writers Samantha Henry in Newark and Katie Zezima in Jersey City contributed to this report.
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Follow Mulvihill at https://twitter.com/geoffmulvihill

Worried by the lingering Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) strike, parents have asked the union leaders to make their demands public.
"Nigerians need to know the rationale behind the protracted strike. We need to know what they are fighting for," some parents demanded in separate interviews in Abuja.
A parent, Mr Isaac Adua, argued that people had been left in the dark as to the motive behind "leaving the children to rot at home."
Adua, a civil servant, who said that his two boys had been at home, said the striking lecturers "should make parents and stakeholders understand their demands, know which of them had been met by government and table the outstanding issues in the court of public opinion.
"This is necessary so that we can decide if they have reasons strong enough to warrant the continuation of their action."
Adua said that until ASUU cleared itself, "they should shun whatever sinister motives they have and return to classes."
He alleged that the strike was losing its substance and destroying the very foundation it claimed it was trying to correct.
Another parent, Mr Dadi Maxwell, urged ASUU to consider the future of the students and return to work.
Maxwell, a bank executive, said it was good for ASUU to make its demands public so that Nigerians would also assist the union in its case.
"It is also good for them to tell us what the Federal Government has so far conceded to them and what is left," he said.
Another parent, Hajiya Larai Yuguda, a business woman, said that she had had no peace of mind since her daughter returned home and had been doing nothing.
"I fear for her safety and future and I know every parent caught in this war by ASUU understands the situation.
"Let ASUU take a bow when the ovation is still at its loudest because there is no telling what may happen in the nearest future if they remained adamant."
She pleaded with the striking lecturers to consider the plight of parents and students and call off the strike.
The strike, embarked upon more than three months ago, has crippled the university system with many groups staging demonstrations and calling for an end to it.
The latest protests came from the Coalition of Civil Society Organisations, market women, the National Association of Nigeria Students, Eduwatch Consult, an education interest group, among others.

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cThe accident took place on the Niger River on Oct. 11 when a boat overloaded with passengers and goods capsized near the town of Konna, as it was heading for the northern town of Timbuktu.
"The latest toll is 72 dead, 11 slightly injured and 210 rescued," government spokesman Sounkalo Togola said after three ministers travelled to the scene of the accident.
Authorities had given an initial figure of 20 dead. Togola said no more passengers were missing.
Abdoulaye Koumare, Mali's transport minister who was among those who visited the scene, criticised the lack of security procedures and said emergency measures such as limiting the weight of cargo and numbers of passengers would be put in place.
The Niger River is a major route for transporting goods and people to Mali's desert north, which is gradually recovering from months of occupation by al Qaeda-linked rebels last year. (Reporting by Tiemoko Diallo; Writing by David Lewis; Editing by Alistair Lyon)

Nigeria’s embattled minister of aviation, Princess Stella Adaeze Oduah, has set up a panel to investigate how information about the N255 million two bullet-proof cars, purchased for her by the Nigerian Civil Aviation Authority, NCAA, was leaked to the media, sources said on Friday.
Sources in the aviation ministry said the newly set up panel is headed by the Director of Consumer Protection at the NCAA, Adamu Abdullahi.
The investigation will revolve around the NCAA and already, staff in the finance and account units have been informed, sources said.
SaharaReporters, an online medium, had on 15 October published documents that revealed that NCAA had in August this year bought two bullet-proof BMW cars at the whopping sum of N255 million for Stella Oduah.
Beyond revelations that the minister did not have the power to request such gifts from the cash-strapped NCAA, especially at the time the agency was said to have cut back on training of vital staff, the cars were highly overpriced.
The minister spokesperson later justified the purchase by claiming that Oduah’s life was in danger and she needed not one but two cars as she embarked on a so-called transformation agenda of Nigeria’s troubled aviation sector.
Since the publication on Tuesday, the media have been awash with outrage and condemnation and many in the aviation sector and civil society movement have called on Oduah to resign on account of corruption and mismanagement.
Analysts say it may be an exercise in futility because such information could have been leaked from First Bank of Nigeria, NCAA or Coscharis Motors, the trio involved in the transaction.
Besides, analysts say Oduah should take the bold step and do the right thing by resigning since the story is true.
The minister has been battling a number of challenges before the latest scandal which threatens to tear her reputation apart.
Twelve days before the leak, an Associated Airline plane loaded with 20 people and the remains of Olusegun Agagu, former governor of Nigeria’s southwestern state of Ondo, crashed in Lagos, killing 15 people.
The small plane came down only seconds after take-off.
The next day, on 4 October, another plane, this time belonging to Kabo Air and loaded with 512 pilgrims and crew, crash-landed in the northern city of Sokoto, damaging some airport equipment and coming to a stop with burst tyres.
The following day, Dana Air’s licence was suspended after an air return due to engine failure. Arik Air also had an air return and hovered in the air for about 30 minutes.
And only last Sunday, an IRS Airline plane loaded with 89 passengers had an emergency landing in Nigeria’s northern city of Kaduna. The passengers disembarked from the runway even as firefighters and crew surrounded the airport.
The minister was still under heavy criticisms and lawmakers had already scheduled a public hearing with her to explain why close to 200 people have died in plane crashed since she became minister of aviation on 2 July 2011, when the latest scandal blew open.

COALITION of Civil Society Organizations, Market women and students have staged a protest with placards of different inscriptions at the Federal Capital Territory, FCT, Abuja, over the continuous strike  by the Academic Staff Union of Universities, ASUU, alleging that the strike has increased prostitution in the country.
The group which noted that the strike was entering the fourth month appealed to the Nigerian Labour Congress, NLC, the Trade Union Congress, TUC and appealed to the union to call off the strike in the interest of  Nigerians.
Some of the placards read, “ASUU please save our young girls from prostitution, NLC, TUC and NUPENG mediate now, Stop playing politics with our future, This ASUU strike has lost its tactics, ASUU please save our future.”
Though, the group   in some of the placards had accused the striking university teachers of being selfish and too rigid in their demands, in what looked like a contradiction, the groups also said that the demands were germane and for the good of the education system.
Delivering a letter to the NLC President at the Labour House, the leader of the protest and Executive Director of Conscience Nigeria, Comrade Tosin Adeyanju said that they decided to embark on the protest to appeal to the labour leaders to mediate on the lingering face-off between ASUU and the Federal Government that had led to the continuous closure of public universities in the country.
Comrade Adeyanjul said, “We embarked on this protest today to further appeal to all major stakeholders in the Nigeria project and we deem it fit to come to the labour house because of the strategic importance that labour represents in this country.
“For almost 100 days, our students, our dependants, our children have been locked out of our ivory towers and nothing has changed. We are here to appeal to the  labour leaders in this country to come and mediate on the lingering and prolonged ASUU strikes.
“We are not unaware on the germane and relevant issues raised by ASUU, there is need for our institutions to be revitalized, there is need for improved research, there is need for improved allowance, there is need for infrastructural development in ivory towers, but all over the world no country has been able to meet the demands of labour unions 100 per cent.”
“With the information available to us, we are aware that the federal government proposed and has given ASUU a 100 billion initial fund requested for different issues in the various universities. We are aware that ASUU appealed for more money to be given on the earned allowance and 30 billion was given for earned allowance as at today about 130 billion has been given to ASUU.”
Receiving the protesters, President of NLC, Abduwaheed Omar, represented by the Chief Economist of NLC, Dr. Peter Ozo’eson said that the labour leaders had initiated moves by writing to the Federal government about four times on how to mediate but government had not responded to their letters.