1. The appointment of prominent opposition figures to President Bola Tinubu’s 2027 re-election campaign council has triggered discontent within the ruling All Progressives Congress and raised fears among opposition candidates that the political alliances could undermine their electoral fortunes.

Findings by Sunday PUNCH across several states revealed growing unease among APC stakeholders in Osun, Anambra and Rivers states, where opposition politicians were appointed to coordinate Tinubu’s campaign, while candidates in the affected opposition parties expressed fears of electoral losses.

2. Chief of Army Staff, Lieutenant-General Waidi Shuaibu, arrived in Maiduguri, Borno State capital, on Saturday, amid heightened tensions and a looming protest by the parents of 78 school children who were abducted in May. The high-stakes visit comes as the parents shelved a planned journey to the nation’s capital, where they had threatened to occupy the streets outside the Presidential Villa in Abuja until President Bola Ahmed Tinubu personally addressed their plight.

3. Segun Sowunmi, convener of The Alternative, has the presidential candidate of the Nigeria Democratic Congress, Peter Obi and his supporters, known as Obidients, as the biggest obstacles to the South-East producing Nigeria’s president.
Sowunmi said the region needed to build alliances with other parts of the country and reduce political hostility if it hoped to secure the presidency in a multi-ethnic and multicultural nation.

4. The All Progressives Congress, APC, in Oyo State has asked the State Police Command and other security agencies to pursue the perpetrators of the brutal killing of a middle-aged man, Ridwan Adeyemo, who was reportedly hacked to death by some assailants on Friday at Agbokojo Area of Ibadan. The party urged security operatives to investigate the matter and bring the perpetrators to justice.

5. Vice President Kashim Shettima has said he fears divisions within the ruling All Progressives Congress, APC, more than he fears the opposition ahead of the 2027 general elections. Shettima spoke on Saturday in Abuja when he unveiled the campaign head office of Arewa for Asiwaju, A4A, a northern coalition backing the Tinubu/Shettima ticket, and formally inaugurated its campaign structure.

6. The Makinde-Daura Presidential Campaign Organisation, MDPCO, has vowed that its candidate, Seyi Makinde of the Allied Peoples Movement, APM, will defeat President Bola Tinubu in the 12 battleground states, including Rivers State and the Federal Capital Territory, FCT, Abuja, in the January 2027 presidential election. The campaign organisation said Tinubu’s planned visits to the states would do little to change what it described as growing opposition to his re-election.

Oyo State Police Command has rescued a one-month-old baby girl allegedly sold for N2m and arrested two suspects, including the baby’s mother and the owner of the health facility where she was delivered. The incident occurred in Ido Local Government Area of Ibadan, Oyo State. The suspects are the baby’s mother, 23-year-old Cecilia Amos, and the owner of Ebepraise Health Centre, Ido, Dr Adeleke Ebenezer, 40.

8. Operatives of the Delta State Police Command have arrested 95 suspected cultists in coordinated raids on criminal hideouts across the state. The operatives recovered five firearms, comprising two pump-action guns, one locally fabricated cut-to-size gun and two locally made pistols, alongside 12 live cartridges and seven expended cartridges.

9. Minister of the Federal Capital Territory, FCT, Mr Nyesom Wike, on Saturday took his political consultations to Ogba Land, a kingdom in Rivers and appealed to the traditional leaders to support President Bola Tinubu’s re-election bid. Addressing the traditional council at the Palace of the Oba (King) of Ogba Land, Nwachukwu Obuoha-Obi III, in Omoku, Ogba-Egbema-Ndoni Local Government Area of Rivers, Wike said “supporting Tinubu is a support for prosperity”.

10. Troops of the Nigerian Army have killed two suspected kidnappers, rescued an abducted victim and recovered N10 million ransom during an operation in Falgore Forest, Doguwa Local Government Area of Kano State. The operation, conducted by troops of 3 Brigade under Operation MESA, followed the abduction of Alhaji Kabiru Aliyu at Fanyabo village in Falgore Forest on October 11, 2026.

The suspended commandant of the Nigeria Security and Civil Defence Corps (NSCDC) in Niger state, Suberu Aniviye, has said that the deaths of suspected illegal miners in custody was a costly and avoidable mistake.

The embattled commandant reportedly apologised to the victims’ families while testifying before a panel of inquiry investigating the deaths in Minna, the Niger state capital. The panel is chaired by Mohammed Mohammed, a judge.

He described the incident as a costly mistake that occurred during his tenure.

Also, while giving evidence, Stephen Tsado, suspended head of the NSCDC legal unit, said that he had advised Aniviye to release the underage suspects to their parents on bail, but his advice was not heeded.

Aniviye said the operation followed complaints from residents around M.I. Wushishi Housing Estate about mining activities in their communities.

According to him, he visited the site on September 15 before deploying mining marshals, who arrested the suspected illegal miners the following evening.

Aniviye told the commission that he learnt of the deaths through a telephone call on September 17 and returned to the command’s office, where he found bodies lying on the detention cell floor.

He said he informed Umaru Bago, governor of Niger state, who directed that the bodies be taken to the mortuary, adding that he also contacted the state commissioner of police and the director of the Department of State Services (DSS).

According to him, the suspects were scheduled to be arraigned in court on September 17 before their deaths.

Maryam Etang, a nurse attached to the command’s medical unit, told the commission she was shocked to find the body of one Emeka Emmanuel among those brought out of the cell. She said Emmanuel was not among the miners arrested during the operation.

It would be recalled that 37 suspected illegal miners arrested in M.I. Wushishi and Lukoto villages in Niger state died in NSCDC custody in September.

Aniviye had said the suspects were arrested during operations conducted on September 15 and 16.

Following the death of the 37 miners, the Federal Government suspended Aniviye and ordered an investigation into the deaths.

It also constituted a 10-member independent committee to investigate the circumstances surrounding the incident.

The African Democratic Congress (ADC) presidential campaign council has accused the vice-presidential candidate of the Nigeria Democratic Congress (NDC), Rabiu Kwankwaso, of undermining the opposition to advance President Bola Tinubu’s re-election chances in 2027.

Kola Ologbondiyan, director of media and publicity of the ADC-PCC, in a statement on Friday, said Kwankwaso had been attacking opposition leaders instead of criticising the Tinubu-led All Progressives Congress (APC) government.

Ologbondiyan was reacting to Kwankwaso’s recent call for Atiku Abubakar, the ADC presidential candidate, to step down for Peter Obi, the NDC flagbearer, ahead of the 2027 elections.

He described the call as reckless and self-serving, alleging that it was an attempt to divide the opposition for the APC’s benefit.

According to him, Kwankwaso should focus on strengthening the opposition rather than undermining another opposition leader, adding that Atiku would win Kano, the former governor’s home state, with or without his support.

“Rather than campaigning against President Tinubu, whose administration Nigerians are eagerly working to vote out, Kwankwaso is fixated on Atiku Abubakar, the ADC candidate, whom millions of Nigerians believe can restore economic stability and make life affordable again,” he said.

“What Kwankwaso is doing amounts to advancing President Tinubu’s interests. It is a familiar APC strategy to use willing collaborators within the opposition to create confusion, sow division and weaken the collective efforts to bring about political change.

“Nigerians are wiser than that and will not allow themselves to be distracted by political manoeuvres designed to rescue an unpopular administration.”

The ADC-PCC spokesperson further alleged that Kwankwaso’s intervention was driven more by personal ambition and calculations for future political negotiations than by a genuine desire to strengthen Obi’s chances.

“He appears to believe that by pushing the South-east narrative, he can position himself for a future bargain with the ruling party. It is an old-style political calculation that Nigerians are increasingly unwilling to accept,” he said.

Ologbondiyan also questioned Kwankwaso’s political consistency, citing his movement across different parties as evidence of what he described as repeated political repositioning.

“From the PDP to the APC, back to the PDP, then to the NNPP, the ADC, and now the NDC, Kwankwaso’s political journey calls for serious reflection. His latest interventions appear to be taking him back into the political shadows of the APC,” he said.

Contrasting Atiku’s political reach with Kwankwaso’s, Ologbondiyan described the ADC candidate as a nationally established politician with extensive networks across Nigeria’s six geopolitical zones.

“Atiku Abubakar is a cosmopolitan, detribalised and nationally recognised political figure who has built relationships across the North, South, East and West over more than three decades,” he said.

“Kwankwaso, on the other hand, has concentrated much of his political strength within Kano State. His ability to translate that regional influence into broad national electoral success remains a major question.”

The ADC-PCC urged Nigerians to disregard what it described as Kwankwaso’s attention-seeking intervention and support Atiku and the ADC’s bid to “rescue, recover and rebuild” the country.