Good morning Nigeria, welcome to our news roundup of top newspaper headlines in Nigeria for today, Friday, 25th November 2022
The Government of Niger Republic on Thursday named a road after the President of Nigeria, Muhammadu Buhari.
Naija News gathered that President Buhari commissioned the 3.8km length and 160m wide Boulevard named after him.
President Buhari, while speaking after inaugurating the road, called for greater cooperation among West African nations to combat escalating volatilities and threats.
According to Buhari, the ever-evolving nature of the threats underlines the need for enhanced coordination.
He further stated on Thursday that incremental progress has been made in the fight against terrorism and other trans-border crimes.
President Buhari warned against the efforts of terrorists to expand their operations and footholds in West Africa.
The Nigeria leader affirmed the commitment of Nigeria to bilateral, as well as multilateral initiatives with Niger, Chad and Cameroon.
The Department of State Services (DSS) has withdrawn a suit filed at a Federal High Court, Abuja, seeking to detain former terrorists’ negotiator, Tukur Mamu, for 60 more days after his arrest
Naija News recalls that the DSS, through its counsel, Ahmed Magaji, had on Sept. 13 moved a motion ex-parte, which sought an order of the court to detain Mamu for 60 more days in the first instance, pending the conclusion of its investigation.
The motion marked: FHC/ABJ/CS/1617/2022, was dated and filed on Sept. 12.
The security agency prayed the court to listen to its demand to enable it to conclude its investigation on Mamu, who had been leading the negotiation with terrorists for the release of the Abuja-Kaduna train passengers kidnapped in March.
However, in the resumed hearing, the counsel, A.M. Danlami, informed Justice Nkeonye Maha that the matter has been overtaken by events.
The Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN) has come out to emphasize that its engagements with presidential candidates are not an endorsement or a campaign of any sort.
According to the CAN President, Archbishop Daniel Okoh, the interactive session with pre candidates was to discuss issues that will promote the common good of every citizen of Nigeria.
Naija News gathered that Okoh, in a statement issued today by the apex Christian body, said the dialogue with the candidates provided a platform for all parties to collectively review the understanding of the crisis of development and governance facing Nigeria and find a lasting solution to them.
The CAN president, who advised Nigerians to vote their conscience in the 2023 presidential poll, urged the presidential candidates to keep to the promises made to CAN and Nigerians to ensure that they walk towards peace and security in the country.
The presidential candidate of the New Nigeria Peoples Party (NNPP), Rabiu Kwankwaso, on Thursday revealed why he dumped the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) for the All Progressives Congress and eventually the NNPP.
Kwankwaso, during a town hall meeting organised by a political movement under the aegis of New Dream for Grassroots Development, said he defected from those parties because he was searching for a better and new Nigeria.
He, however, stated that the ruling APC and PDP are all bad governments.
According to Kwankwaso, they thought it was necessary to bring an alternative, but the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) was not in hurry for such.
He noted that they carefully selected NNPP based on its manifesto, beliefs and vision.
The Anambra State Governor, Charles Soludo has stated that there is nothing personal in the disagreement between him and the Labour Party (LP) presidential candidate, Peter Obi.
According to him, he and Obi are brothers and they speak with each other constantly.
He added that the alleged rift between them is just a disagreement on political ideologies which some people are trying to blow out of proportion, adding that they will soon meet to iron out their differences.
Naija News recalls Soludo in a recent article titled ‘History beckons and I will not be silent,’ said Obi is only playing a game and can’t win the 2023 presidency.
The submission drew mixed reactions from Nigerians and other stakeholders in the political landscape, attracting huge criticism for Soludo.
However, speaking on Thursday at St. Patrick’s Cathedral Awka, during the thanksgiving mass for Most Rev. Paulinus Ezeokafor in celebration of his 70th birthday, Soludo said some mischievous persons are trying to cause a rift between him and Obi based on the article.
As earlier reported by this platform, Obi and Soludo met at the event and hugged each other.
Speaking further at the event, the Anambra Governor added that some people were shocked to see them hug and greet each other passionately after the ‘explosive’ statement.
He also denied collecting any $28 million bribe to frustrate the presidential ambition of Obi.
Tonye Cole has been disqualified as the All Progressives Congress (APC) governorship candidate in Rivers State.
Naija News reports that the verdict was given on Thursday, November 24 by a Federal High Court sitting in Port Harcourt.
The governorship hopeful was sacked based on having dual citizenship. Cole is said to be a citizen of the United Kingdom. The court also ruled that the APC did not comply with the Electoral Act that brought in Cole as the party’s candidate.
Rivers State’s ruling party, the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) had earlier approached the court to direct the Independent National Electoral Commission not to recognize Cole as the governorship candidate of APC for alleged dual citizenship.
The party also alleged that the delegate election that produced the APC guber candidate did not follow due process having not been monitored by INEC.
The presiding judge, Justice Emmanuel Obile, agreed with PDP that Cole is not eligible to contest the governorship position.
He thereby directed the electoral commission to delist his name from the list of eligible candidates for the 2023 Governorship election in Rivers State.
The Appeal Court in Yola has affirmed Aishatu Binani as the standard governorship flag-bearer of the All Progressives Congress (APC) in Adamawa state.
Earlier, the court nullified the primaries that produced Aishatu Binani as the All Progressives Congress (APC) governorship candidate for Adamawa states.
The court had declared that there would be no candidate for the APC in the state for the 2023 elections.
Naija News understands that the senator representing Adamawa central had defeated Nuhu Ribadu, former chairman of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), and Jibrilla Bindow, former governor of the state, to win the primary held on May 26.
Binani came first in the poll with 430 votes, while Bindow had 103 and Ribadu 288 votes, respectively. However, Ribadu, aggrieved by the election’s outcome, instituted a suit challenging Binani’s victory.
In the judgment, Abdulaziz Anka, the presiding judge, nullified the entire primary election. He ruled that the process was not compliant with the 2022 Electoral Act, the Nigerian constitution, and the party guidelines.
The judge said Binani’s victory was in clear contravention of Section 85 of the Electoral Act because there was “manifest overvoting”.
On Thursday, the Court of Appeal in Yola set aside the ruling that nullified the primary that produced Emmanuel Bwacha as the All Progressives Congress (APC) governorship candidate for Taraba State.
Naija News reports that a different ruling by the Federal High Court in Jalingo, Taraba State capital, had earlier sacked Bwacha as the party’s candidate following a suit by a former aspirant, David Kente.
The court judge, Justice Simon Amobeda, granted Kente’s prayer and sacked the winner of the primary polls.
Kente and Senator Abubakar Yusuf, another poll aspirant, contested Bwacha’s victory, alleging irregularities in the exercise.
The High Court judge argued that all the primary results couldn’t have the same handwriting, while the returning officer declared that no primary was held in the state at the police headquarters due to security threats.
The former Deputy Minority Leader of the Senate later appealed the judgment and alleged that the ruling Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in Taraba State is the major cause of the APC problems within the state.
However, the appeal court on Thursday ordered that Bwacha’s name should be forwarded to the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) as the APC governorship candidate in Taraba.
The leader of the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB), Nnamdi Kanu, has sued the Director General of the National Intelligence Agency (NIA), Ahmed Abubakar, over his illegal detention.
In a suit filed by the special counsel to the IPOB leader, Alloy Ejimakor, Kanu dragged Abubakar to court for imprisoning him in Kenya for eight days, before his extradition to Nigeria.
In a post via his Twitter handle on Thursday morning, Ejimakor said the suit was prompted by new evidence gathered implicating the NIA DG beyond the infamous extraordinary rendition.
In the suit, the IPOB leader asked the court to direct Abubakar to pay him N20bn as compensation.
According to the suit, the court gave Abubakar 14 days to appear or be represented in court, adding that failure to show up would mean that judgment would be given in the DG’s absence
The 36 states governors in Nigeria have instructed their lawyers to drag the Muhammadu Buhari-led federal government to court over the Executive Order on the decision to sell the 10 National Integration Power Project.
Naija News reports that this was disclosed in a communique at the end of the governors’ meeting signed by the Chairman, Nigeria Governors’ Forum (NGF) and Governor of Sokoto State, Aminu Waziri Tambuwal.
The governors, after their meeting, stated that they remain resolute on legal options on the controversial $418 million Paris Club Fund.
On the $418 million Paris Club Refund and promissory notes issued to the consultants by the Federal Ministry of Finance and the Debt Management Office (DMO), the governors stressed that they remain, “resolute in exploring all legal channels available to it in ensuring that resources belonging to States are not unjustly or illegally paid to a few in the guise of consultancies.”
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