The governor of Rivers state, Siminalayi Fubara, has dissolved the state executive council.

In a statement night by Onwuka Nzeshi, his chief press secretary (CPS), on Thursday, Fubara asked all commissioners and special advisers to hand over to the permanent secretaries or the most senior officers in their respective ministries.

The governor thanked the outgoing members of the executive council for their service to the state and wished them well in their future endeavours.

The development comes days after President Bola Tinubu brokered peace between the governor and the Rivers state house of assembly, following months of political tension, impeachment threats, and division in the parliament.

The majority of the Rivers house of assembly members are allies of Nyesom Wike, the minister of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT).

Wike recenlty campaigned against Fubara’s re-election bid, accusing him of reneging on a peace deal they both signed before Tinubu lifted the emergency rule in Rivers.

Earlier in the week, Wike said Tinubu has once again intervened in the Rivers state political crisis, expressing confidence that the protracted standoff between the executive and the legislature would be permanently resolved.

According to reports, the peace terms proposed by Wike before the suspension of the emergency rule in the south-south state included a demand that Fubara reinstate Sergeant Awuse, the traditional ruler of the Emohua kingdom, as the chair of the state’s traditional rulers’ council

Fubara had sacked Awuse, a strong ally of Wike, in June 2024 and appointed Chike Worlu Wodo in his place.

Wike also demanded the appointment of new commissioners.

The Ukrainian Defence Intelligence (UDI) has identified two Nigerian men, Hamzat Kazeem Kolawole and Mbah Stephen Udoka, killed as Russian mercenaries during assaults in Luhansk.

UDI announced their deaths in a statement on Thursday, with photographs revealing their pre-death military poses and one family image.

“In the Luhansk region, military intelligence operatives discovered the bodies of two citizens of the Federal Republic of Nigeria — Hamzat Kazeen Kolawole (03.04.1983) and Mbah Stephen Udoka (07.01.1988),” the statement read.

According to the statement, both men served in the 423rd Guards Motor Rifle Regiment (military unit 91701) of the 4th guards kantemirovskaya tank division of the armed forces of the Russian federation.

UDI said that they signed contracts with the Russian Army in the second half of 2025: Kolawole on August 29 and Udoka on September 28.

“Udoka received no training whatsoever — just five days later, on October 3, he was assigned to the unit and sent to the temporarily occupied territories of Ukraine,” the report read.

It added that no training records for Kolawole have been preserved; however, it is highly likely that he also received no military training but his wife and three children remain in Nigeria.

Both Nigerians, the report added, were killed in late November during an attempt to storm Ukrainian positions in the Luhansk region.

“They never engaged in a firefight — the mercenaries were eliminated by a drone strike,” UDI stated, warning foreign citizens against traveling to the Russian federation or taking up any work on the territory of the “aggressor state”.

It further warned that “A trip to Russia is a real risk of being forced into a “suicide” assault unit and, ultimately, rotting in Ukrainian soil.”

Security agents reportedly made attempt to arrest Nasir El-Rufai, the immediate past governor of Kaduna State, shortly after his arrival in Nigeria from Cairo, Egypt.

The development was disclosed by the Media Adviser to the former governor, Muyiwa Adekeye, on social media on Thursday.

Adekeye shared, “Security agents today attempted to arrest Malam Nasir @elrufai as he arrived on a flight from Cairo. Malam El- Rufai declined to follow them without a formal Invitation. They, however, snatched his international passport from an aide.”

Adekeye, however, failed to identify the security agents who attempted to arrest the former governor.

El-Rufai, a prominent member of the opposition party, African Democratic Congress (ADC), had earlier alerted the public that he could be arrested as soon as he set foot in Nigeria.

“Four people we worked with in Kaduna have been arrested; so it’s only a matter of time before they come for me too,” he told BBC Hausa on Wednesday.