1. Senator Oluremi Tinubu on Thursday said her husband, President Bola Tinubu, should not be blamed for the current economic hardship in Nigeria. Speaking at the Palace of Ooni of Ife, Oba Adeyeye Ogunwusi, on Thursday, the First Lady said the Tinubu administration is still very young.
2. The Chairman of Isa Local Government Area of Sokoto State, Alhaji Sharifu Kamarawa, has told Minister of State for Defence, Alhaji Bello Matawalle, that some communities in the council are still under the control of bandits. He told the Minister that the bandits led by Kachalla Bello Turji, appointed and deposed village heads in those areas.
3. The Board of Trustees of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) has asked President Bola Tinubu to immediately review his policies so as to check the widespread hardship in the country. In a communique after its meeting at the party headquarters in Abuja on Thursday, the BOT expressed concerns over the economic hardship and “general sense of misery and despondency”.
4. The Court of Appeal sitting in Abuja, on Thursday, affirmed the judgement of the Federal High Court which set aside the N800 billion budget passed by the Rivers State House of Assembly faction loyal to Governor Siminalayi Fubara. The court ordered Fubara to re-present the budget to the full House.
5. The National President of the Independent Petroleum Marketers Association of Nigeria, Abubakar Shettima, has urged the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited to sell petrol to its marketers at the same rates offered by Dangote Petroleum Refinery. In an interview, Shettima also demanded a refund of the funds owed to the oil marketers, which have been held by NNPC for the past three months.
6. The Defence Headquarters stated on Thursday that it chose not to go after the former Niger Delta militant warlord, Mujahid Asari-Dokubo, to avoid being accused of acting “undemocratically.” The Director of Defence Media Operations, Maj. Gen. Edward Buba, made this remark in Abuja while responding to a recent report about Asari-Dokubo’s alleged threat to shoot down a military helicopter that had reportedly hovered around his residence.
7. A female Senior Secondary 3 student of Akoko Anglican Grammar School, Arigidi Akoko, in Akoko North-West Local Government Area of Ondo State (name withheld) has been arrested by the state police command for allegedly stabbing her male colleague, Habib Salau, to death. The incident was said to have occurred following the argument that ensued between the duo outside the school premises after school hours.
8. A Federal High Court sitting in Kano, on Thursday, sentenced a 67-year-old Lebanese, Zuhier R Akar, to 14 years imprisonment for sexually exploiting two teenage girls. The National Agency for the Prohibition of Trafficking in Persons, Kano State Command, arraigned Akar of Gidan Wanka, Unity Road, Fagge Local Government Area, Kano with two counts of trafficking and sexual exploitation.
9. Some sports journalists who were travelling to Uyo, through Anambra State, to cover a football event in Akwa Ibom State, have been kidnapped. According to sources, the journalists, who were about 11 in number, were travelling in a bus through Iseke, around the Ihiala area of Anambra, when they were kidnapped.
10. Nobel Laureate, Wole Soyinka has said he has “made arrangements” for his death even though he also plans a vacation. At 90, the playwright, essayist, novelist and poet discussed everything from his artistic inspirations to his plans in an interview with CNN.
