FRESH FM TOP NEWS THIS WEEK

The hottest and most trending news articles for this week in all categories are captured in one shot. Find articles ranging from News to Sports, to Politics, to Entertainment, to Economy, to Metro plus, and many other categories. See below the top news for the week:

NEWS

• Democracy Day: FG Declares Monday Public Holiday

The Federal Government, through the Ministry of Interior, has declared Monday, June 13, as a public holiday in commemoration of Nigeria’s Democracy Day which comes up on June 12. The Minister of Interior, Ogbeni Rauf Aregbesola, made this known in a statement signed by the Permanent Secretary of the Ministry, Dr M. L. Shuaib Belgore, on Thursday.

He congratulated Nigerians and urged all citizens to support the present administration in its efforts at ensuring a secured, united and prosperous nation. Aregbesola admonished Nigerians to use the occasion to reflect on the long journey the country has made towards the enthronement of civil democratic order, before Independence in 1960 till date and the sacrifices of our patriots.

• Traders Shut Lagos Market, Youths Storm TBS For Voter Registration

The Alaba International Market in the Ojo area of Lagos State on Thursday shutdown operations to mobilise traders in the market to register or get their permanent voters card to enable them to vote in the forthcoming elections in Nigeria. Newsmen gathered that during the exercise, the traders visited Ojo Local Government Area, which is the venue for the registration. The registration was said to be ongoing when the registrants became frustrated by the availability of a single registration terminal.

A Twitter user, identified simply as Columbus, said registration was ongoing when some hoodlums allegedly besieged the premises to steal the terminal being used for the registration. He, however, noted that the registrants foiled the attempt, adding that the hoodlums were sent to disrupt the registration process. Columbus, using his handle, @Chude_, wrote, “Igbo traders closed down Alaba market to register for PVC in Ojo LGA HQ today and Lagos thugs were sent to disrupt the process. “They attempted to carry the only @inecnigeria PVC machine at the centre but the crowd overpowered them. This is unacceptable!”

Reacting to the development, the state Police Public Relations Officer, Benjamin Hundeyin, said the attack was caused by one of the registrants, adding that normalcy had been restored. The state Public Affairs Officer, Independent National Electoral Commission, Adenike Oriowo, said, “Ojo Local Government has five machine; we are on a rotational plan around the wards. So, for every ward, you just have a single machine and in a bid to get it closer to the people, people are expected to go to that place to register.’’

Meanwhile, hundreds of youths besieged the Tafawa Balewa Square in the Lagos Island area of the state to register for the PVCs on Thursday. During the exercise, newsmen observed security agents including the army, police and private security personnel arranging the youths in batches to control the crowd. A registrant, who gave his name only as Stanley, said most of the registrants were youths who were determined to partake in the forthcoming election, adding that some of the registrants spent hours before completing their registration.

• Insecurity: Makinde To Work With Traditional Rulers

Governor Seyi Makinde of Oyo State said he would soon call an expanded Security Council Meeting in the state, which would include traditional rulers, to strategise on how to prevent attacks on communities in the state. He said this on Wednesday night at the inauguration of a Mini-Mapo Hall built by the Ibadan South-West Traditional Rulers Council led by former Governor Rashidi Ladoja. He said this became necessary following the massacre of worshippers by some gunmen at the St. Francis Catholic Church, Owo in Ondo State.

Makinde said those who attacked Owo could not have arrived in the town on the day they launched the attack, saying they probably had been in the town to survey and plan how to unleash terror on the innocent people. He, however, stated that such operations could be foiled if traditional rulers and community leaders were incorporated into the security network in each community because they served as the eyes and ears for security agencies and the government.

The Owo massacre happened a year after gunmen invaded Igangan, a community in Ibarapa North Local Government Area of Oyo State, killing many and razing the Palace of the Asigangan of Igangan. The governor said traditional rulers could be very useful in curbing insecurity in their domains if they were recognised and given the opportunity to play such roles.

• Gunmen disguise as worshippers, massacre over 35 in Ondo church

There was pandemonium at Saint Francis Catholic Church, Owa-luwa Street, Owo, the headquarters of the Owo Local Government Area of Ondo State as gunmen attacked the church on Sunday. The attack on the church in Owo, the hometown of the state Governor, Rotimi Akeredolu, came barely a week after the Prelate of the Methodist Church of Nigeria, Bishop Samuel Kanu-Uche, was kidnapped in Abia State by gunmen the priest later identified as Fulani youths.

It was learnt the gunmen, who attacked the Catholic church, arrived at the premises, which is less than 200 metres from the palace of the Olowo of Owo, at 12pm when the Sunday mass was being rounded off. Newsmen gathered that worshippers, mostly children and women, were killed in the attack, by gunmen, who were said to have thrown an improvised explosive device before they started shooting sporadically. A 37-second video posted online showed some of the slain worshippers in a pool of blood.

Workers of the Federal Medical Centre and Saint Louis Hospital, both in Owo, where the dead and the injured were taken to, told newsmen that a total of 35 people were brought in dead. But the state police command told newsmen at 8:30pm that it was still compiling the casualty figure. Also, the church and the state government did not specify the casualty figure.

• Owo attack: NANS, others condemn killing, charge govt to action

The National Association of Nigerian Students, South-West zone, and other student bodies have joined a host of Nigerians to condemn the terrorist attack at St. Francis Catholic Church, Owo, Ondo State, that left scores of people dead. NANS, in a statement issued Monday, signed by its zonal Coordinator, Deputy Coordinator, and Secretary; Adegboye Olatunji, Alao John and Awoyinfa Opeoluwa, respectively, said the attack was a threat to the lives of citizens of the state and was highly condemnable. NANS charged the President, Major General Muhammadu Buhari (retd.), and the Ondo State Governor, Rotimi Akeredolu, to take responsibility for the security situation of the country and the state.

Also, a former governor of Ondo State, Olusegun Mimiko, has condemned the Sunday morning terrorist attack on St. Francis Catholic Church, Owa-luwa Street, Owo, Ondo State. In a statement posted to his verified Facebook page, Mimiko also commiserated the families of the victims of the attack. The statement partly read, “The senseless attack on unarmed worshippers at St Francis Catholic Church, Owo, in Ondo state, on Sunday morning, is a condemnable act and it assaults our humanity and bludgeons our sensibilities”
While also commiserating with the Ondo State government over the attack, the two-term governor of the state urged the Rotimi Akeredolu-led government to mobilise healthcare assets to Owo and seek help from neighbouring states, if need be, to save those who were injured from the attack.

• Owo massacre: Survivors, victims’ families groan as CAN, NGF protest

Owo community in Ondo State wore a mourning look on Monday, 24 hours after some gunmen attacked Saint Francis Catholic Church, Owa-Luwa Street in the town which is the headquarters of Owo Local Government Area. The Sunday attack on the church in Owo, the hometown of the state governor, Rotimi Akeredolu, left many parishioners dead and several others injured. As of Monday, survivors of the attack were groaning at the Federal Medical Centre, Owo, where they are currently receiving treatment. This is just as some victim’s families have been hospitalised due to the trauma from the attack.

Earlier on Monday, members of the state chapter of the Christian Association of Nigeria took to the streets of the ancient town to protest against the killing. The association led by its state chairman, Rev. Fr. Anslem Ologunowa, took the protest to the palace of Olowo of Owo, Ajibade Ogunoye III. The Nigeria Governors’ Forum represented by its chairman and Governor of Ekiti State, Dr. Kayode Fayemi, also protested the attack.

Fayemi, who paid a condolence visit to the Bishop of Catholic Diocese of Ondo, Jude Arogundade, disclosed that the attack was sponsored. The Bishop, who described the attack as evil, decried the spate of insecurity in the country, saying those people at the position of authority must do everything to tackle the menace. “I am calling on you the leaders of the country. I think we need to talk and we need to be frank with ourselves. This cannot happen without the backing of some powerful people. Those behind this, no matter how powerful they are, must be brought to book,” he said.

Shortly after, Vice President Yemi Osinbajo also paid a condolence visit to the state, as he visited the palace and the victims at the hospitals. Similarly, the National Leader of the All Progressives Congress, Asiwaju Bola Tinubu visited the town and donated N 75 million to the victims. Reacting, the European Union expressed shock over the killings.

• Owo attack: Christian group demands improved security, good governance

A group, Nigeria Christian Graduate Fellowship, has called on the Federal Government to improve security in the country, while condemning the killing of over 35 worshippers at St Francis Catholic Church, Owo, Ondo State by unidentified gunmen on Sunday. The group’s national President, Prof. Chuks Eboka who stated this on Monday in Benin, Edo State, also noted that it is time for Nigerians to demand good governance.

He said the group was shocked to see the latest slaughtering of Nigerians who went to worship God, noting that the carnage has to stop, adding that no place is safe in the country anymore.

Proffering solutions to the problem, the group called on Nigerians to reject any attempt to foist clueless leaders on the country, noting that there is an urgent need for a return to true federalism and nationalism as was practised in the First Republic. He noted that since the present structure is not working, a secure and equitable environment should be provided urgently for free and fair elections to be conducted.

• UN Secretary-General condemns Owo attack, seeks arrest of perpetrators

The United Nations Secretary-General, Antonio Guterres, has condemned the Sunday attack on St. Francis Catholic Church, Owo, Ondo State, by gunmen, which claimed scores of lives. He called on the authorities to spare no effort in bringing the perpetrators to justice. According to a statement by the spokesperson for the Secretary-General, Stéphane Dujarric, Guterres emphasised that attacks on places of worship are abhorrent.

It read, “The Secretary-General condemns in the strongest terms the heinous attack on the St. Francis Catholic Church in Owo, Ondo State, on June 5 that resulted in the death and injuries to scores of civilians as people gathered for the Pentecost service. The Secretary-General emphasises that attacks on places of worship are abhorrent. He urges the Nigerian authorities to spare no effort in bringing the perpetrators to justice.”

The Secretary-General extended his heartfelt condolences to the families of the victims and wished a speedy recovery to the injured. He also expressed his sympathies and solidarity with the Government and people of Nigeria.

• Owo attack: Give security agencies ultimatum to produce killers, Islamic council urges FG

The Nigerian Supreme Council for Islamic Affairs on Monday condemned the attack on St. Francis Catholic Church, Owo, Ondo State by suspected terrorists describing it as a crime against humanity and grievous and inexplicable sin. The organisation also called on governments at all levels to issue and pursue an ultimatum for the security agencies to unravel the identity and bring to book the perpetrators of the violation of the sanctity of not only life but also religion.

The NSCIA, under the leadership of its President-General and Sultan of Sokoto, His Eminence, Alh. Muhammad Sa’ad Abubakar, in a statement by its Director of Administration, Zubairu Haruna Usman-Ugwu, said all peoples of a different faith should take the killing as a direct attack on all law-abiding citizens. Many innocent worshippers were said to have been gruesomely murdered and several others severely wounded.

The NSCIA said, “It is a crime not only against humanity but also a grievous and inexplicable sin. All peoples of Faith should take this attack as a direct attack on all law-abiding citizens and should therefore be in the vanguard to halt the evil that appears to be assailing the life, property and integrity of humanity, particularly believers in God. The NSCIA said it “stands in absolute solidarity with the Christian Association of Nigeria, the Catholic community, the government and people of Ondo State and commiserates with the families of the victims in this period of immeasurable agony and distress.”

• Lagos okada ban, destruction targeted at northerners – CNG

The Coalition of Northern Groups has warned against the ongoing seizure and destruction of Okada motorcycles directed by the Lagos State Government, saying the action targets northern operators and therefore was “completely unacceptable”. The CNG in a statement by its Spokesperson, Abdul-Azeez Suleiman, noted that it was “rash, irrational, insensitive and wicked” that the Lagos State Government would in just 72 hours of announcing the ban, seize and subject 7,548 bikes, mostly owned and operated by northerners to the crusher.

Suleiman said, “We note that of recent, State governments in the South have resorted to imposing and enforcing controversial, unfriendly and damaging legislation that effectively curtail the right to freedom of movement of the northern people living in their midst. More disturbing is that like in the current case of Lagos, the enforcers of these discriminatory laws almost all the time fail to draw the decent distinction between the northerner as citizen, or commercial motorcycling as an occupation, from criminality.

“To the makers of these laws and their formal and informal enforcers, it matters little that just because some Okada riders commit certain breaches does not make all motorcyclists criminals. In fact, they are enforcing the laws without taking into consideration that the vast majority of northerners in Lagos – including those who are Okada operators – are peaceful everyday people with the same needs, anxieties and hopes as the rest of Nigerians.” This, he said, was not only a catalyst for further conflict but also a clear contradiction of sections of the Nigerian Constitution that declare null and void any law in any part of the country that conflicts with any of its provisions, especially on the right of every citizen to live and flourish in any part of the country, without discrimination or harassment.

“This brutal encroachment by the Lagos State government on the right of northerners to freedom of movement, freedom of association and other fundamental human right safeguards, is eroding the consciousness that for decades, different tribes in Nigeria have been accommodated and tolerated in the North, without their hosts enacting discriminatory laws specifically to intimidate, harass and endanger them, their families, their properties or their trades. The CNG also called for the urgent intervention of the Federal Government to ensure the protection of the rights of the northerner wherever he chooses to live in the country.

POLITICS

• ‘It’s In My Pocketbook:’ Tinubu Keeps Mum On Choice Of Running Mate

The presidential candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC) Bola Tinubu has kept mum about his choice of running mate, insisting that the decision is in his “pocketbook”.
Since his win at the APC convention – which ran between Tuesday and Wednesday – speculations over who the former Lagos State governor will pick as a running mate have heightened.

But during a visit to President Muhammadu Buhari at the State House in Abuja on Thursday, Tinubu, instead, kept many pundits and observers guessing about his choice.
“I won’t tell you that,” Senator Tinubu told reporters after the meeting. “That is my right; it’s in my pocketbook.”

His visit to the Nigerian leader, days after his victory in Abuja, was to thank Buhari for his support during the APC presidential primary. Tinubu believes the President’s neutrality in the contest aided his emergence as the party’s flagbearer for the exercise.

• Tinubu: Don’t opt for Muslim-Muslim ticket, Babachir warns APC

A former Secretary to the Government of the Federation, Babachir Lawal, has warned the All Progressives Congress against picking a Muslim as running mate to its presidential candidate, Asiwaju Bola Tinubu, who is also a Muslim. Lawal pointed out that Nigerians are still conscious of ethnoreligious factors in politics. According to him, Tinubu would have been running mate to the President, Major General Muhammadu Buhari (retd.), when the latter became the candidate of the APC in 2014 but for the discouragement of a Muslim-Muslim ticket.

He issued the warning while speaking on a programme on Channels Television on Thursday. Tinubu, a former governor of Lagos State and National Leader of the APC, had emerged as the flagbearer of the ruling party on Wednesday. There are concerns that Tinubu, a Muslim, might be forced to pick a Muslim running mate from the North where Christians are the minority.

When asked if it was time for northern Christians allegedly marginalised to be placated with the nomination of one of them as Tinubu’s running mate, Lawal said, “I will answer this question in a roundabout way. A political party is in the business of winning elections and to win elections you need to get the votes to beat your opponents. The way I see it is that in choosing your vice-president, that must be paramount in your mind. You can have the best ticket but if you don’t win elections, it is a waste of time.

• Peter Obi receives Labour Party’s certificate of return

The presidential candidate of the Labour Party, Peter Obi, has received the certificate of return following his emergence as the flagbearer of the party in the 2023 presidential election. The certificate of return was handed over to Obi on Friday. The National Secretary of the Labour Party, Umar Ibrahim, had earlier said that Peter Obi remained the party’s presidential flagbearer and that there was no faction in the party.

• Tinubu Beats Osinbajo, Amaechi, 11 Others To Win APC Presidential Primary

Former Lagos State Governor, Bola Ahmed Tinubu, took a major step toward his ambition of becoming Nigeria’s President by winning the All Progressives Congress’ presidential primary at a special convention held in Eagle Square, Abuja. He won the election by a landslide after beating the likes of Vice President Yemi Osinbajo, former Minister of Transportation, Rotimi Amaechi, and the Senate President, Ahmad Lawan.

Tinubu polled a total of 1,271 votes – more than four times the votes scored by his closet rival, Amaechi who had 316 votes. Osinbajo, Lawan, and Governor Yahaya Bello of Kogi State came behind the duo with 235, 152, and 47 votes respectively. More than 2,300 delegates voted in the contest that produced Tinubu as the presidential flagbearer of the ruling party. He is now scheduled to face the Peoples Democratic Party’s Atiku Abubakar and others in the February 25 presidential ballot.

After weeks of political drama and intrigues during which the party held several meetings and tried but failed to get a consensus candidate, things started to swing Tinubu’s way when aspirants were called to address delegates before voting began. Former Minister of Niger Delta Affairs, Godswill Akpabio, was the first aspirant to step up. Rather than solicit votes for himself, he endorsed Tinubu and appealed to delegates to vote for the APC chieftain. Senator Ibikunle Amosun and Ekiti State Governor, Kayode Fayemi, followed in Akpabio’s lead. Two other aspirants — Senator Ajayi Boroffice and Dimeji Bankole — also signalled their support for Tinubu.

Another major endorsement for Tinubu came from Jigawa State Governor, Mohammed Badaru Abubakar. The only female in the contest, Uju Ken-Ohanenye, also endorsed the APC chieftain. Although 23 aspirants were billed to participate in the primary, nine of them – including the seven aspirants who endorsed Tinubu and Felix who stepped down for Osinbajo – pulled out of the contest. The ninth aspirant who announced his withdrawal was former Senate President Ken Nnamani who decried the failure of the party to zone its ticket to the South East.

• VP Slot: Tinubu, APC Northern Govs In Crucial Meeting

Barely 24 hours after the presidential convention where former Lagos State governor, Senator Bola Tinubu, emerged as the All Progressives Congress (APC) standard-bearer, governors from the north on the platform of the party met with him at his Asokoro residence in Abuja.  Governors sighted at the meeting included Abdullahi Umar Ganduje (Kano), Simon Lalong (Plateau), Abubakar Atiku Bagudu (Kebbi), Aminu Masari (Katsina), Abdulrahman Abdulrazaq (Kwara), Mai Mala Buni (Yobe), Abubakar Sanni Bello (Niger), Inuwa Yahaya (Gombe) and Mohammed Badaru (Jigawa). 

The governors told newsmen at the end of the meeting that they came on a congratulatory visit. Sources, however, revealed that the meeting was connected to the choice of a running mate to the APC presidential candidate.  Investigation revealed that the governors took off from the Katsina Governor’s Lodge, Asokoro, to meet with Tinubu.  Speculation was rife that the governors secured a commitment from Tinubu on the eve of the election that a Muslim among them would be picked as running mate.  Tinubu media campaign office had since dismissed such a deal as mere rumour. 

The choice of running mate, according to investigation, has been an uphill task in the camp of both Tinubu, candidate of the APC and his main rival in the 2023 election, Atiku Abubakar of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP).  According to the guidelines issued by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), the 18 political parties have up to June 17 to submit the names of their nominated candidates to the electoral umpire. 
The national chairman of the APC, Senator Abdullahi Adamu, who also paid a solidarity visit to Tinubu, left the residence shortly after the arrival of the northern governors. 

• Running mate: Crisis looms as Atiku intensifies consultations

The presidential candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, Atiku Abubakar, in continuation of his consultations towards choosing his running mate, will be meeting ex-PDP governors and ministers, this weekend. A source privy to the scheduled meeting told newsmen in Abuja yesterday that the candidate will be meeting with the forum of Ex-PDP governors and ministers.

Atiku had held a similar meeting with governors elected on the party’s platform on Wednesday. The source explained that the PDP candidate was trying “to balance all the interests before arriving at an acceptable choice.” It was gathered that at the meeting with governors, he was inundated with requests to choose from among them.

Some of the serving governors being suggested include the first runner-up in the presidential primary and Rivers State governor, Nyesom Wike; Delta State Governor, Ifeanyi Okowa, Akwa Ibom State governor, Udom Emmanuel, and Bayelsa State Governor Douye Diri. Contacted, Special Adviser (Media), to the former Vice President, Atiku Abubakar, Mazi Paul Ibe, confirmed plans by the candidate to meet various interest groups within the party.

• Ekiti, Osun Gov Polls: Shun Vote Selling, MMPN Charges Electorate

As the governorship elections in Ekiti and Osun states draw near, the Muslim Media Practitioners of Nigeria (MMPN) has called on the electorate to be alive to their responsibility and shun vote selling. This call was contained in a communique in Ibadan signed by the chairman of the Oyo State chapter of the MMPN, Alhaji Ridwan Fasasi, after a monthly meeting of the association hosted by the state’s Ministry of Information.

The association noted that the idea of exchanging votes for money which characterised previous elections had brought untold hardship to the masses. The MMPN also reiterated the call by the Independent National Electoral Commission  (INEC) on the electorate to collect their Permanent Voter’s Cards (PVCs) at the various offices and designated centres across the country with particular reference to Oyo State with about 750,000 unclaimed PVCs.

The association looked into the plight of pensioners in the country, observing that many state governments had failed to pay pensions and gratuities of retirees, thereby subjecting them to hardship. It, therefore called on the affected states to pay the backlogs in the interest of the wellbeing of the senior citizens who, it said, used their productive years to serve.

• Why Tinubu won APC presidential primary – Ex-Borno gov, Shettima

Former Borno State Governor, Kashim Shettima, has revealed why the All Progressives Congress presidential candidate, Bola Tinubu, emerged as the party’s flagbearer for the 2023 general election. Shettima noted that Tinubu’s promise of better days for Nigerians across all divides resonated with party members, stakeholders and delegates that voted at the party’s primary.

He said aside from the endorsement of Tinubu by six other presidential aspirants, his personality and nationwide acceptability played a crucial role in his emergence. “Asiwaju emerged as victor against all odds because you elected to see through the mud thrown at him by those who couldn’t match his political credentials,” he said. Shettima, who was one of the top supporters of Tinubu’s presidential ambition, revealed these in a series of tweets on his Twitter handle on Thursday.

Tinubu scored 1,271 votes to defeat his closest contenders, Rotimi Amaechi and Vice President Yemi Osinbajo, on Wednesday. Amaechi obtained 316 votes while Osinbajo polled 235.

• Atiku’s running mate: PDP raises panel as Wike, Okowa lobby for VP slot

The All Progressives Congress and the Peoples Democratic Party on Thursday stepped up moves to choose running mates for their presidential candidates. The PDP set up a committee comprising its governors, the National Working Committee and the Board of Trustees members as well as former governors with the mandate of picking its vice-presidential candidate.

The committee met on Wednesday and Thursday in Abuja. The PDP spokesman, Debo Ologunagba, confirmed the setting up of the committee to newsmen. It was gathered that the Rivers State Governor, Nyesom Wike, and his Delta State counterpart, Ifeanyi Okowa, had intensified lobby of the PDP stakeholders as part of moves to clinch the post.

On his part, the APC presidential candidate, Asiwaju Bola Tinubu, on Thursday, began the search for his running mate with a meeting with northern governors. As Tinubu met northern governors, the Independent National Electoral Commission on Thursday gave parties June 17 deadline to submit the names of their presidential candidates and running mates. The commission had on May 27 extended the deadline for parties to conduct primaries from June 4 to June 9.

• Governor Makinde To Lead PDP Campaign In Ekiti

The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) has constituted a National Campaign Council for the June 18 Ekiti State Governorship election, to be chaired by Governor Seyi Makinde of Oyo State. The council, according to a statement by PDP National Publicity Secretary, Debo Ologunagba, in Abuja on Thursday, has Governor Okezie Ikpeazu of Abia State as the deputy chairman.

The party also listed Adedamola Adegbite as its Administrative Secretary, while other members include Governors Nyesom Wike, Udom Emmanuel, Taofeek Arapaja and Samuel Anyanwu among others. The party added that the date for the inaugural meeting of the council and other details would be announced in due course. The PDP had in January elected Bisi Kolawole as its governorship candidate for the election.

• Akpabio wins senatorial rerun primary in Akwa Ibom

The immediate past Minister for Niger Delta Affairs, Godswill Akpabio, has emerged the winner of the Akwa Ibom North-West senatorial primary under the All Progressives Congress platform. The first primary conducted on May 28, 2022, for the senatorial district was cancelled following security infractions during the primary.

Before the rerun election, Akpabio was a presidential aspirant under the ruling party but stepped down for former Lagos state Governor, Bola Tinubu, who won the party’s presidential ticket. But Akpabio won the rerun poll having polled 478 votes, while Sir Joseph Akpan had only one vote, and the former Deputy Inspector general of Police who initially won the first primary had three votes.

Out of the 540 delegates for the rerun primary, 512 were accreditated to vote while eleven votes were voided. Speaking on Thursday night at the Godswill Akpabio Empowerment Centre in Ikot Ekpene Local Government Area, shortly after he was declared the winner, Akpabio thanked the delegates for their support and for finding him worthy to fly the flag of the party in the 2023 senatorial election

• INEC Gives Atiku, Obi, Tinubu And Others One Week To Name Running Mates

The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) has set a June 17th, 2022 deadline for presidential candidates to name their running mates. It also set a July 15th deadline for state elections. INEC Chairman Prof. Mahmood Yakubu said this in a statement on the commission’s social media pages.

“Similarly, the list of all Presidential and Governorship candidates must be accompanied by the names of their running mates (i.e. Vice Presidential and Deputy Governorship candidates) without which the nomination is invalid,” Thursday’s update from the INEC chairman read.

“All nominations must be uploaded to the portal on/or before the deadlines. The portal will automatically shut down at 6.00 pm (1800hrs) on Friday 17th June 2022 for national elections and 6.00 pm (1800hrs) on Friday 15th July 2022 for State elections.” As of the time of publishing this report, no leading candidate for the presidential election has named their running mate.

ECONOMY

• NNPC to pay N874bn in June as subsidy hits N1.82tn

Operators in the oil and gas sector as well as other stakeholders are uncomfortable with the continued rise in the amount spent in subsidising Premium Motor Spirit, popularly called petrol, as it jumped to N947.51bn between January and April 2022. An analysis of data obtained from the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited on Wednesday showed a monthly rise in PMS subsidy spendings by the oil firm, though NNPC described it as under-recovery/value shortfall.

It was also gathered that the oil firm had informed the Federation Account Allocation Committee that it would deduct an estimated value shortfall of N874.5bn in the May 2022 proceed due for sharing at the June 2022 FAAC meeting. NNPC has been the sole importer of petrol into Nigeria for several years running. The firm has also been subsidising the commodity all these years.

The President, Petroleum Products Retail Outlets owners Association of Nigeria, Billy Gillis-Harry, explained that the actual cost of petrol without subsidy was usually a little higher than that of diesel. He toldnewsmen that if not for subsidy, PMS would be selling around N550 to N600/litre going by the international cost of crude oil and the fluctuations in foreign exchange.

The approved subsidised pump price of PMS in Nigeria is between N162 to N165/litre, but oil marketers stated that the actual cost should be a little higher or about the same price of diesel had it been PMS was deregulated.

• NNPC makes N1.7tn from crude sales in 12 months

Revenue made by the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation from crude oil sales in one year has been put at N1.7trn. The corporation’s latest monthly and financial report for August said the sum was earned from March 2020 to March 2021 after it lifted a total of 108 million barrels of crude oil within the year, at an average price of $43 per barrel.

A breakdown of the report showed that in March 2020, the oil and gas firm lifted approximately 9, 490mn/b; 11, 437mn/b in April; 5, 113m/b in May; 6,274mb in June; and 8,546m/b in July. In August, NNPC said it lifted 8, 546mn/b; 8, 490mn/b in September; 10, 333mn/b in October; 9, 532mn/d in November; and 7, 539mn/b in December 2020. The NNPC earned N124bn in January 2021, N230bn in February, and N184bn in March 2021.

The corporation put total revenue from sales at N1.7trn within the period under review.
Nigeria earns about 90 per cent of its revenue from mostly export of crude oil. The Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer, 11 Plc and former Chairman, Major Oil Marketers Association of Nigeria, MOMAN, Tunji Oyebanji, told newsmen in an interview that Nigeria’s dependence on oil revenue would not give room for adequate growth of other sectors of the economy.

• FG orders ambassadors to woo strategic investors

The Federal Government on Wednesday charged Nigerian ambassadors in foreign nations to identify and provide strategic investors in their domains capable of investing in Nigeria.
It gave the charge through the Nigerian Investment Promotion Commission at the Roundtable on Economic Diplomacy meeting with various Nigerian ambassadors, hosted by the Abuja Chamber of Commerce and Industry.

The Acting Executive Secretary, NIPC, Emeka Offor, said Nigerian embassies in other nations should provide opportunities for the commission to engage with leading investors in the foreign countries. He said, “There are about 178 national investment promotion agencies across the globe and they are all trying to attract investments to their own countries. That tells you that the competition for capital is intense, especially now that we are recovering from COVID-19 pandemic. “So there is the need for not just the investment promotion agency to work towards attracting investments into the country, but for our high commissions and embassies to strongly look at how do we convince investors in those countries to invest in Nigeria.

Offor added, “So when you talk about a particular country, you know those areas and you know the leading investors in those countries that are looking towards investing in other countries.” He said the NIPC conducted a study to identify certain countries and their competitive advantages, adding that it was important to attract investors from these nations.

He added, “They can give us names of three to five companies that have shown interest in investing in Nigeria. We can now work with the embassies to do targeted investment promotion activities with them. The Nigerian Ambassador to Ukraine, Shina Alege, said Nigerian embassies were ready to work with the organised private sector through the various chambers of commerce across the country.

• 20 power plants suffer major problems, blackouts to worsen

Following the perennial power outages currently being experienced across the country; findings have shown that 20 gas power plants are currently under-performing, leading to power generation dropping below 2000MW. Nigeria has 23 power generating plants with 11, 165MW capacity connected to the national grid. These plants are managed by generation companies (GenCos), independent power providers, and Niger Delta Holding Company. Out of the 23, two are hydro plants.

Independent investigations by newsmen showed that the gas plants are currently either generating below expectations, shut down due to lack of gas, or undergoing maintenance.
Investigations further showed that the affected plants included: Omotosho units 5 & 6, Olorunsogo units 3, 4 & 6, Omoku Units 3 & 6, Omotosho NIPP units 3 & 4, Delta units 15, 17, and 18, Afam VI units 11 & 12, Olorunsogo NIPP unit 3, Ihovbor NIPP unit 2, Sapele Steam unit 3, Sapele NIPP unit 1, Odukpani NIPP units 1 & 3, and Okpai units 11, 12 & 18.

Also, Jebba Hydro and Shiroro power generating stations are either out or have limited generation capacity. Other affected power generating plants include: Omotosho units 3&4, Olorunsogo unit 1, Delta units 10 &20, Afam VI unit 13, Ihovbor NIPP unit 4, Geregu NIPP units 22&23 and Odukpani NIPP units 2, 4 & 5. These are out either because of fault or for scheduled maintenance. The two hydro plants, Shiroro and Jebba, are also experiencing generation shortfall due to water management.

BUSINESS

• Nigerians beat CBN restrictions, trade N78bn Bitcoin in three months

Nigerians traded at least N77.75bn ($185m) worth of Bitcoin in the first three months of the year despite the Central Bank of Nigeria’s restrictions on cryptocurrency transactions in the country. This is a 5.71 per cent increase from the N73.54bn worth of Bitcoin that was traded in the corresponding period of 2021, according to data made available to our correspondent by Paxful, one of the major peer-to-peer cryptocurrency platforms in the nation.

Trade from Nigeria accounted for 25.87 per cent of the total N300.48bn ($715m) worth of Bitcoin that was traded on the platform in the quarter under review. Global trade on the platform showed an 8.33 per cent increase from the N277.377bn ($660m) that was traded on it in the corresponding period of 2021.

According to the firm, Nigeria was its largest trading country in 2021 with 16,000 daily trades. In the period under review, the market cap of BTC dropped by $36.90bn from $902.10bn as of January 1, 2022, to $865.20bn as of March 31, 2022. This was despite the CBN’s restrictions on cryptocurrencies in the nation. In February of 2021, the CBN asked banks in the nation to stop transacting in and with entities dealing in crypto assets.

• Bayelsa assembly approves oil palm plantations’ establishment

The Bayelsa State House of Assembly has passed a one-point resolution urging the state government to take urgent steps to establish three additional oil palm plantations, one each in the three senatorial districts of the state. Obordor informed the House that most sister-states in the South-South had taken concerted measures to improve their internally generated revenue through agriculture, and that Bayelsa should also prioritise agriculture.

He stated that despite the existence of the Bayelsa Oil Palm at Elebele in the Ogbia Local Government Area, the state could still set up other oil plantations in the three senatorial districts to generate employment opportunities. The legislator also noted that such business ventures could help stabilise the economy of Bayelsa and reduce the state’s over-dependence on monthly federal allocation.

The one-point resolution also called on the government to resuscitate moribund plantations across the state. The resolution was sequel to a motion moved by a lawmaker, Mitema Obordor, on the need to establish three more state-owned oil palm plantations, one in each of the three senatorial districts of the state. He argued in his motion that the government’s over-dependence on crude oil had had telling negative effects on the state’s economy because of the price volatility of crude oil in the international market.

• MAN tackles CBN over N1tn low-interest loan

Manufacturing companies have said they cannot access loans at the Central Bank of Nigeria’s five per cent lending rate under its intervention scheme for manufacturing and other critical sectors. According to them, the loans have structural framework problems and are almost never accessed in banks at five per cent. They added that banks were more open to giving manufacturers loans at their official market rates.

Speaking with newsmen, the Chairman of Manufacturers Association of Nigeria’s Electrical/Electronic sectoral group, Mrs Ijeoma Oduonye, said efforts made by her firm towards accessing the intervention funds through one of its designated commercial banks had proved abortive.

Also, according to the Sectoral Chairman of the Manufacturers Association of Nigeria’s Gas users and the Executive Director of Haffar Industries, Michael Ola-Adebayo, the structural framework of the CBN intervention leading has complexities that limit manufacturers from accessing them through the designated commercial banks.

According to a report, the CBN agreed to leave interest rates at five per cent per annum for critical sectors and manufacturing industries until March 2023. This decision followed the resolution of the Monetary Policy Committee to increase the benchmark interest rate to 13 per cent from 11.5 per cent. When contacted, the Director of Corporate Communicatios, CBN, Mr Osita Nwanisobi, disagreed with the position of the manufacturers.

EDUCATION

• NLC urges FG to end strike by ASUU, others

The Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) has called on the Federal Government to end the strike by the Academic Staff Union of Universities and other university-based unions. The NLC President, Mr Ayuba Wabba, made the call in his contributions to the report of the Director-General, International Labour Organisation, during the 110th International Labour Conference in Geneva, Switzerland. The conference which opened on Tuesday has the theme: “Social justice, decent work”.

According to Wabba, the NLC has written to the Federal Government on how to end the universities’ workers’ strike. “We call on the government to bring this strike to an end without further delay,” he said. While the Federal Government continue to work on the demands of the unions, academic activities across all public universities have been suspended. Wabba said that the NLC had written to President Muhammadu Buhari on how to use a high-powered delegation to end the strike.

• Talks with FG panel over strike fruitless – SSANU

The Joint Action Committee of the Senior Staff Association of Nigerian Universities and Non-Academic Staff Union of Educational and Associated Institutions has said no tangible achievement was recorded at the Federal Government Renegotiation Panel. Speaking in an interview with newsmen on Tuesday, the National Vice-President, SSANU, Dr. Abdussobur Salaam, said the panel met only once with SSANU since it was inaugurated on March 7, 2022.

It had been reported that the committee, which was chaired by the Pro-Chancellor of Alex Ekwueme Federal University Ndufu-Alike, Emeritus Prof. Nimi Briggs, was given three months to conclude the renegotiation with the four university unions and send the report to Federal Government.

The committee’s timeline ended on Monday. It is believed that the committee will submit its report to the Federal Government this week or get an extension. But Salaam explained that the Briggs committee’s engagements with SSANU had been minimal and the timeline was not being adhered to.

• Soludo orders repeat of online recruitment exam for teachers

Governor of Anambra State, Prof. Chukwuma Soludo, has ordered the repeat of the online recruitment examination teachers which took place on Saturday, June 4. There have been criticisms about the examination by some candidates owing to network failure as the website failed for about 30 minutes into the one-hour exam. About 31,000 candidates had applied to sit for the examination to fill the 5,000 available vacancies.

A majority of the candidates had complained that the system broke down even before they could log in for the examination due to network failure. The situation forced the participants and other stakeholders to allege that it was a deliberate attempt to shut them out of the exams for preferred candidates to be picked.

Although, the Commissioner for Education, Prof. Ngozi Chuma-Udeh, had immediately debunked the allegations stating that 6,000 candidates had successfully completed their final logging in. But in a press statement on Tuesday, Soludo announced that the examination has been cancelled and that a repeat exercise will hold to accommodate all.

• Why 1,000 teachers were sacked in Anambra – Soludo

Governor of Anambra State, Chukwuma Soludo, said that no fewer than 1,000 teachers in the state were relieved of their appointments with the state government because they were employed in a hazy manner. The governor stated that the affected persons thereby remained unqualified for the job. Soludo, who made the clarification in a statement signed by Chris Aburime, his Press Secretary, on Thursday, said that no qualified teacher was sacked by the government. Soludo said that the termination of the appointments was in line with his administration’s effort at repositioning the education sector according to standard practice.

Some of the affected teachers said they were duly employed and issued appointment letters by the last administration in November 2021 but were sacked in April 2022. They said they had served the Anambra education school system for between two years and seven years as Parents/Teachers’ Association teachers. They argued that if they could be engaged in that capacity, they should also be worthy of regularised employment. The sacked teachers said it was unfair to sack them unceremoniously after working for about seven months without pay and called on the governor to kindly reinstate them.

The state government had advertised 5,000 vacancies in the Education and Health sectors, in which no fewer than 31,800 were shortlisted for computer-based test. The online examination is scheduled to hold on June 11.

HEALTH

• Breakthrough for cancer treatment as US drug trial records ‘success’

A United States, US, drug trial involving cancer patients has reportedly recorded 100 percent success. The patients had rectal cancer, a type of cancer that begins in the rectum, which is the lower end of the large intestine. According to a study published in the New England Journal of Medicine, the trial consisted of 12 patients, all of whom entered remission after taking “dostarlimab” over a six-month period. Dostarlimab is an immunotherapy drug used in the treatment of endometrial cancer. It works by unmasking cancer cells, allowing the immune system to identify and destroy them.

This clinical trial sought to know whether it could be effective against rectal cancer tumours. The researchers said the 12 patients received dostarlimab every three weeks for six months and the treatment was to be followed by standard chemoradiotherapy and surgery. They, however, said six months after the patients stopped taking the medication, they recorded significant improvement.

The scientists, however, noted that “longer follow-up is needed to assess the duration of response” and therefore cautioned against concluding that the cancer had been eradicated permanently.

• World Food Day: Nigerians don’t need medicines, if they eat right — NAFDAC

The Director-General, National Agency for Food and Drug Administration and Control, NAFDAC, Prof Mojisola Adeyeye, has urged Nigerians to always ensure that only safe and wholesome foods were consumed to boost the immunity and improve the body’s natural defences in fighting diseases. She also said Nigerians do not need medicines, if they ate right, stressing that eating right meant making healthy food choices from safe, wholesome, and nutritious foods.

Adeyeye, who gave the admonition at NAFDAC celebration of the 4th World Food Safety Day 2022, with the theme “Safer Food, Better Health,” opined that where food was unsafe, nutritional goals could not be achieved. She noted that safe food was an essential component of sustainable development and contributes towards improvement of public health, poverty reduction, and increased food security.

Adeyeye pointed out that the theme also aligned with the World Health Assembly 75 theme, which is “Health for Peace and Peace for Health,” adding that safer food took the front and centre position for better health and relative personal and world peace. She stressed that the occasion of World Food Safety Day remained an added opportunity to create and generate awareness around food safety and situate it as a very significant issue of public health concern, especially in the light of safe, wholesome food being important for boosting immunity and improving the body’s natural defenses in fighting diseases.

• 97 LGs record suspected Lassa fever cases, casualties rise

The Nigeria Centre for Disease Control on Thursday said there has been a significant increase in the number of Lassa fever deaths and cases across the country. The centre, through its latest situation report on the disease, stated that as of May 2022, no fewer than 155 deaths with 4,820 suspected cases had been reported across 97 local government areas in 24 states of the federation.

Lassa fever, an animal-borne, or zoonotic, acute viral illness spread by the common African rat also known as the mastomys rat species, is endemic in Nigeria and some other West African countries. The Lassa fever situation report, which the centre made available to newsmen on Thursday, read in part, “The number of suspected cases has increased compared to that reported for the same period in 2021.

An infectious disease physician at the Federal Medical Centre, Abeokuta, Ogun State, and member of the Nigerian Infectious Diseases Society, Dr Ayanfe Omololu, in an interview with newsmen said, “It is important to maintain a clean environment at all times, properly dispose waste, rat-proof our homes, keep our foodstuffs in covered containers and find a way to eliminate rats from one’s homes; possibly keep cats.

• NCDC confirms 31 new monkeypox cases

The Nigeria Centre for Disease Control has said 31 cases of monkeypox have been confirmed in the country. The NCDC disclosed this in its latest monkeypox situation report released on Friday. The agency said between January 1 and June 5, 2022, the disease has been confirmed in 12 states, including the FCT. The agency also confirmed that no fewer than 110 suspected cases of the disease have been reported in the country, up from the previous 66 suspected cases.

Reports have it that the NCDC activated a monkeypox National Emergency Operations Centre in response to the risk assessment conducted, which put Nigeria at high risk for a Monkeypox outbreak. The essence of the activation was to improve the coordination of related preparedness/response activities across the country, the NCDC said. “From January 1st to 5th June 2022, there have been 110 suspected cases in total and 31 confirmed cases from twelve (12) states – Adamawa (5), Lagos (6), River (3), Cross River (2), FCT (2), Kano (2), Delta (2), Bayelsa (2), Edo (2), Imo (2), Plateau (2), and Ondo (1). One death was recorded in a 40-year-old man with co-morbidity that was receiving immunosuppressive drugs.

The World Health Organisation said monkeypox is a viral zoonosis (a virus transmitted to humans from animals) with symptoms very similar to those seen in the past in smallpox patients, although it is clinically less severe. Monkeypox is caused by the monkeypox virus which belongs to the orthopoxvirus genus of the Poxviridae family. There are two clades of monkeypox virus: the West African clade and the Congo Basin (Central African) clade.

WHO noted that the monkeypox virus is transmitted from one person to another by close contact with lesions, body fluids, respiratory droplets, and contaminated materials such as bedding. The incubation period of monkeypox is usually from 6 to 13 days but can range from 5 to 21 days.

WORLD

• US Capitol Riot Probe Puts Trump At Heart Of ‘Attempted Coup’

A congressional panel investigating last year’s mob assault on the US Capitol laid out its case Thursday that Donald Trump and his claims of a stolen election were at the heart of what amounted to an “attempted coup” to remain in power. In a prime-time presentation of its findings from a year-long probe, the special committee sought to persuade a divided country of the existence of a deep-rooted and ongoing plot — orchestrated by the former president — to overturn the result of the 2020 election won by Joe Biden.

“President Trump summoned the mob, assembled the mob, and lit the flame of this attack,” the Republican vice chairwoman of the panel, Liz Cheney, said in her opening remarks at the first in a series of hotly anticipated summer hearings. Minutes earlier, Democratic committee chief Bennie Thompson accused Trump of being “at the center of this conspiracy.” “January 6 was the culmination of an attempted coup — a brazen attempt, as one rioter put it shortly after January 6 — to overthrow the government. The violence was no accident,” he said.

The panel’s carefully produced presentation made use of testimony given behind closed doors by some of Trump’s most senior and trusted advisors, including former attorney general Bill Barr and Trump’s son-in-law and senior aide, Jared Kushner. Thursday’s session and five subsequent hearings over the coming weeks will focus on Trump’s role in the multi-pronged effort to return him to the Oval Office by disenfranchising millions of voters.

Trump has defiantly dismissed the probe as a baseless “witch hunt” — but the public hearings were uppermost in his mind Thursday as he fired off a largely false tirade on his social media platform, defending the insurrection as “the greatest movement in the history of our Country to Make America Great Again.” Following the hearing, he lashed out again on Truth Social, accusing the committee of bias and doubling down on his election fraud claims.

• US To Drop COVID-19 Tests For Incoming Air Travel

The United States on Friday announced that Covid-19 tests would no longer be demanded for international travelers arriving by air, a major step in the country’s gradual lifting of pandemic restrictions. White House Assistant Press Secretary Kevin Munoz confirmed the news on Twitter, with US media saying the testing requirement would end this weekend after strong lobbying from the travel industry.

All passengers had needed to show a negative Covid viral test taken shortly before travel — or proof of having recovered from the virus in the past 90 days — before they boarded their flight. Munoz said President Joe Biden’s work on vaccines and treatments had been “critical” to easing the travel restrictions, and added that the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention would continue to evaluate Covid data amid a recent rise in cases.

Last month, the United States crossed the threshold of one million Covid deaths, with Biden acknowledging the “unrelenting” pain of bereaved families, and urging Americans to remain vigilant. America recorded its first Covid-19 death, on the West Coast, in early February 2020. Many mask mandates have been lifted but the country has recently seen an uptick in the number of daily virus cases, largely due to new Omicron subvariants.

• Nearly 5m Ukrainians Registered As Refugees In Europe – UN

Nearly five million Ukrainians have been registered as refugees across Europe since Russia launched its invasion less than four months ago, the United Nations said Thursday.
“The Ukraine war has caused one of the largest human displacement crises in the world,” said UNHCR, the UN refugee agency. An update of the agency’s data portal on the Ukraine situation, aimed to better reflect movements to and from the war-ravaged country, showed that a total of 4,816,923 Ukrainians had been registered as refugees across 44 European countries since February 24.

Far more will have actually left the country, with UNHCR data showing that more than 7.3 million border crossings out of Ukraine had been recorded by June 7. Another 2.3 million crossings had been registered back into the country, the data showed.

UN officials have said some people have gone back and forth for various reasons, including visiting families, checking their properties, helping others to escape or returning to their jobs. The UN says women and children account for 90 percent of those who have fled abroad, with men aged 18 to 60 eligible for military service and unable to leave.
Beyond those who have fled out of Ukraine, the UN’s International Organization for Migration estimates that more than eight million people have been displaced within the devastated country.

• Zelensky Calls For Russia To Be Expelled From UN Agriculture Agency

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky on Thursday called for Russia to be expelled from the UN’s Food and Agriculture Organization, blaming Moscow for spurring the global grain crisis by invading his country.

“There can’t be any discussion on prolonging Russia’s membership in the FAO. What is there for Russia to do if they are causing hunger for at least 400 million, or potentially more than a billion people?” Zelensky said during an OECD meeting.

• Two-year-old accidentally shoots father dead in US

A two-year-old boy accidentally shot and killed his father in Florida after his parents left a loaded gun unattended, local authorities said on Monday. When police officers, alerted by a 911 call, arrived at the victim’s home near Orlando on May 26, they found the child’s mother Marie Ayala providing CPR to her husband, Reggie Mabry. Law enforcement initially believed the 26-year-old, who died shortly afterward in hospital, had shot himself, but the eldest of the couple’s three children later told investigators that the trigger was pulled by his two-year-old brother, Orange County Sheriff John Mina said at a news conference.

The gun was in a bag that Mabry had left on the ground and the child came across it and shot his father in the back while he was playing a video game on a computer, court documents said. The five family members, including a five-month-old girl, were in the same room at the time of the incident. Both parents were on parole at the time after multiple offenses of child neglect and drug use, the sheriff said.

“Gun owners that do not properly secure their firearms are just one split second away from one of these tragedies happening in their homes,” Mina said. Now these young children have effectively lost both of their parents. Their father is dead. Their mother is in jail, and a young child has to live their life knowing that he shot his father,” the sheriff added. Such tragedies are not uncommon in the United States.

In August 2021, another two-year-old child found a gun that had been left in a Paw Patrol backpack and fatally shot his mother in the head while she taking part in a video conference. The latest accident also comes as the debate over gun regulations rages in the country, after several deadly mass shootings in a supermarket, hospital and primary school, among others.

• New York Raises Age For Owning Semiautomatic Rifle

New York’s governor raised the age for buying a semiautomatic rifle from 18 to 21 Monday as she tightened gun laws following the racist massacre at a supermarket in Buffalo. Kathy Hochul approved a package of gun reform laws that had been passed by the state senate in the wake of last month’s shooting that killed 10 Black people. The measures come amid a spate of mass killings in the United States that have sparked renewed calls for greater gun control laws.

Payton Gendron, 18, is accused of gunning down the shoppers at Tops Friendly Market using a an AR-15 assault rifle that he had bought legally. As well as being at least 21 years old, buyers of semiautomatic rifles will now also have to obtain a permit, meaning undergoing a background check. Democratic New York already has some of the strongest gun laws in America. The new laws also ban most civilians from purchasing body armor, such as bullet-proof vests. Gendron, a white supremacist, was wearing heavy body armor during his alleged attack on May 14.

Ten days after the Buffalo shooting, a teenaged gunman shot dead 19 children and two teachers at an elementary school in Uvalde, Texas. US President Joe Biden has called for new gun-control legislation, including a ban on assault weapons. At a minimum, Biden has said lawmakers should raise the age at which assault weapons can be purchased from 18 to 21. But gun regulation faces deep resistance in the United States, from most Republicans and some rural-state Democrats. US gun violence has killed more than 18,000 people so far in 2022, including nearly 10,300 suicides, according to the Gun Violence Archive.

• Dominican Republic Minister Shot Dead In Office

The Dominican Republic’s environment minister, Orlando Jorge Mera, was shot dead during a meeting on Monday by a businessman and longtime friend, who has been taken into custody, the government said. A lawyer and politician, the 55-year-old Jorge Mera was the son of former president Salvador Jorge Blanco (1982-86), and had headed the environment ministry since mid-2020. “The information we have at the moment indicates that this morning the environment minister lost his life after he was attacked with a firearm in his office,” said Homero Figueroa, the spokesman for the presidency. Miguel Cruz, who has been identified as the shooter, was a personal friend of the dead minister,” he said.

Figueroa said the suspect was in police custody and his motive was “under investigation.”
The alleged shooter used his friendship with the victim to gain access to a secure area where Jorge Mera was holding a regular meeting with his deputies, ministry sources told AFP. According to a statement from Jorge Mera’s family, Cruz was “a childhood friend whom he received in his office.” According to sources close to the investigation, Cruz and Jorge Mera had found themselves at loggerheads over environmental policy.

President Luis Abinader declared himself “deeply saddened” by the minister’s death, offering his condolences to the victims’ wife and children, while the environment ministry said it was “dismayed” by the attack. Jorge Mera, who formed the Modern Revolutionary Party alongside Abinader, was president of the Dominican telecommunications institute from 2000 to 2004. A lawyer, he had also worked as a television producer and presenter.
He came from a political family. His sister Dilia Jorge Mera is a deputy minister, his son Orlando Jorge Villegas is a legislator and his widow Patricia Villegas is the ambassador to Brazil.

ENTERTAINMENT

• Rapper Falz Releases Fifth Studio Album, BAHD

Nigerian rapper, songwriter, and actor Folarin Falana, popularly known as Falz the Bahd Guy, has released his fifth studio album titled BAHD, in the wee hours of Thursday. The new album, released under his self-owned record label, Bahd Guys Entertainment, comprises 12 tracks and features Nigerian stars like Tiwa Savage, The Cavemen, BNXN, LAX, Chike, and new Mavin Records signee BoySpyce.

BAHD comes three years after Falz’s last studio album, Moral Instruction, in which the 31-year-old heavily sampled the late Afrobeat icon, Fela Anikulapo Kuti, and dealt extensively with socio-political themes including government corruption, religious hypocrisy and terrorism, and failing moral standards on the part of Nigerians.

His new album departs from that political tone, settling instead for the comic and light-hearted themes for which the rapper first came to be known. Falz has since grown a reputation as a musician with a political streak since he, alongside colleague Runtown, led the first round of protests in Lagos State during the EndSARS campaign of October 2020. Last Saturday, the rapper announced that he will be hosting a music concert on June 11 at the Tafawa Balewa Square, adding that only those with Permanent Voter Cards or temporary voter slips will be allowed entry.

• Cyber fraud: Forensic investigations indict Naira Marley

The Cybercrime Section of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, on Thursday, submitted reports of forensic investigations led by Whyte Dein to corroborate their case against singer Azeez Fashola a.k.a Naira Marley, charged with credit card fraud before the Ikoyi Federal High Court. Dein, the Chief Detective Officer of the Section told the court that his team’s investigations revealed that the defendant was involved in credit card fraud.

The artiste faced 11 charges bordering on alleged credit card fraud contrary to Money Laundering (Prohibition) Act and the Cyber Crimes Act. It was gathered that the singer committed these offenses between November 26 and December 11, 2018, and May 10, 2018. He was arraigned on May 20, 2019, but was granted bail.

At the resumed trial on Thursday, Dein, led in evidence by EFCC counsel, Rotimi Oyedepo, told Justice Nicholas Oweibo that they discovered conversations on the defendant’s iPhone with one Raze who asked for a credit card details. Dein also explained that the singer used a multi-lingual browser to access illegal networks. Another forensics expert, Buru Buhari had on October 3, 2019 during the proceedings, told the court that his investigations revealed stolen card details issued by European, American, and Latin American banks from the singer’s laptop.

Dein concluded by saying the investigations pointed out the defendant’s involvement in cyber fraud. However, the defense counsel, Olalekan Ojo, SAN, objected and said only the court could conclude. The case was adjourned till July 13 for ruling on the points raised, and July 15 for continuation of trial.

• Femi Kuti receives golden saxophone for 60th birthday

It was a thrilling night at the New Afrika Shrine, in Ikeja, Lagos, when afrobeat musician, Femi Kuti, and his son, Made, performed together on Sunday, June 5, 2022. A highlight was when Femi’s sister, Yeni, on behalf of the Kuti family, presented the singer with a birthday cake and a golden Selmer saxophone, which is said to be one of the most expensive saxophones in the world, as a birthday gift.

The singer will turn 60 on June 16, 2022. Yeni also pleaded with her brother to ‘retire’ his old saxophone which she said he had been using for 23 years. Evidently pleased with the gift, Femi said, “It is better than (winning) a Grammy Award. As far as I am concerned, (this is) the real award from my people to appreciate my four decades in the business.”

• Britney Spears’ Ex-Hubby Gate-Crashes Wedding As Singer Marries Lover

American pop icon, Britney Spears, has tied the knot with her lover, Sam Asghari, during an intimate ceremony held in Los Angeles on Thursday. Their marriage comes months after the singer was released from a 13-year conservatorship, which she claimed prevented her from getting married or having children. While her parents and two sons were absent at the event, the singer had several celebrity friends such as Paris Hilton and Drew Barrymore in attendance, E News reports.

The couple’s private ceremony however took a dramatic turn as Spear’s ex-husband, Jason Alexander, tried to gate-crash the event. He went live on Instagram, filming the empty venue while telling security Britney Spears had invited him and he was there to “crash the wedding”. Alexander was later arrested by Ventura County Police on a warrant from a different county for an undisclosed offence.

TMZ also reported that he has been charged with trespassing, vandalism and battery due to his physical altercations with security at the event. Britney and Jason married in Las Vegas on the spur of the moment in January 2004. They, however, called it quits barely three days later.

SPORTS

• US judge authorises seizure of Abramovich’s planes

A United States judge has authorised the seizure of two aircraft owned by Russian oligarch, Roman Abramovich, for violating export restrictions as well as U.S. sanctions on Russia. The Department of Justice said a federal judge in New York authorised the seizure requested by federal agents of a Boeing 787-8 and a Gulfstream G650ER.

The aircraft with an estimated combined value of more than 410 million U.S. dollars is owned and controlled by Abramovich, the billionaire former owner of Chelsea Football Club. The seizure and forfeiture were “based on probable cause of violations of the Export Control Reform Act and the recent sanctions issued against Russia,’’ the DoJ said in a statement.

U.S. authorities charge that each of the two aircraft was flown from a third country to Russia in March. DoJ said the Boeing is currently in the United Arab Emirates, while the Gulfstream remains in Russia. It was initially unclear how or when the U.S. authorities might be able to seize the aircraft.

• Fans hail Osimhen after Eagles win

Nigerians took to social media to heap praises on Super Eagles frontman Victor Osimhen, who scored the winner in the comeback 2-1 African Cup of Nations qualifying win over Sierra Leone in Abuja on Thursday. This is Jose Peseiro’s first win since he was appointed the Eagles coach in May after previously losing his first two games in charge to Mexico and Ecuador in friendlies played in the USA.

Before the win against the Leone Stars, the Eagles had been winless since January.
The excitement of the fans on Twitter was therefore appropriate as they had waited long to see their team victorious again and heaped deserved praises on Osimhen, whose goal gave the team the three points. It was Osimhen’s 11th goal for the Eagles. The Eagles will now travel to Morocco to face Sao Tome and Principe on Monday.

• Anthony Joshua to quit broadcast deal with Sky Sports

nthony Joshua is set to turn his back on Sky Sports and sign a lucrative deal with streaming service DAZN, reports claim, as the heavyweight prepares for his crucial rematch against Oleksandr Usyk this summer. Joshua has fought on Sky Sports for the entirety of his career, with his promoter Eddie Hearn previously having an exclusive deal with the broadcaster to stage his fights. But the Matchroom Boxing chief has since negotiated a £100m-per-year deal with DAZN that has seen him bring his entire stable on board.

Joshua had been the exception to this deal as he had a separate contract to show his fights exclusively on Sky Sports, but that expired after his first fight against Usyk at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium in September – and the heavyweight has now defected to DAZN, reports the Sun. The Watford-born star has been the subject of a bidding war ever since, the report claims, but he is set to pledge his allegiance to Hearn’s new project with DAZN, starting with his next fight with Usyk – slated to be held in August in Saudi Arabia.

Sky Sports initially felt confident of re-signing Joshua as early as last month, the report continues, with DAZN even feeling they had lost the race to sign him. But now the popular app has taken the driver’s seat after a ‘sudden swing’, and now an announcement could be made as early as next week.

METRO PLUS

• Court Sentences Three To Death By Hanging For Killing Funke Olakunrin

An Ondo State High Court sitting in Akure, the state capital, has sentenced three persons to death by hanging for killing Olufunke Olakunrin, the daughter of Afenifere leader, Pa Reuben Fasoranti. While four persons were accused of the crime – Lawal Mazaje, 40, Adamu Adamu, 50, Mohammed Usman, 26, and Auwal Abubakar, 25 – the trial judge, Justice William Olamide on Friday, discharged and acquitted one of them – Auwal.

But the counsel to the three defendants says he will study the judgment to see if an appeal could be filed. On his part, the Attorney General and Commissioner for Justice in Ondo State, Charles Titiloye, commended the judgment. Olufunke was shot dead on July 12 2019 while traveling between Kajola and Ore, along the Ondo/Ore Highway.

The Ondo State Government had in April 2020 arraigned them at a Chief Magistrate Court sitting in Akure. The development came one week after police operatives announced their arrest. The then-Force Public Relations Officer, Frank Mba, said they were arrested after the police established enough physical and forensic evidence linking them to her death.

He explained that the investigators later conducted an Identification Parade in Lagos on April 8, leading to the positive and physical identification of three of them by a survivor of an earlier crime. According to him, the survivor gave a clear description of the roles each of them played in the killing.

• Bandits kill 32, abduct 80 in Kaduna, Katsina

Bandits have again killed no fewer than 32 persons in four communities in Kajuru Local Government Area of Kaduna State. They also kidnapped at least 80 locals who fled from Kwari village in Jibiya Local Government Area of Katsina State and set their food barns and shops on fire. Newsmen gathered that the Kaduna killings, executed on Sunday, took place at Ungwan Gamu, Dogon Noma, Ungwan Sarki and Maikori in Southern part of the state.

Although an eyewitness said the bandits opened fire on the people from a helicopter, Kaduna State government dismissed this, saying it wasn’t true. Confirming the attack, District Head of Kufena, Titus Dauda, said the bandits attacked the communities on Sunday, killing 32 people, adding that a church and many houses were burnt in the attack.

However, some locals claimed a helicopter was seen shooting at the residents from the air, while the remaining bandits were on ground to attack any fleeing residents. They, however, noted that the bandits were countered by security agents both on ground and from the air, forcing the bandits to beat a retreat.

• Lagos Mob Burns 30 okadas, Beats Motorcyclist For Killing Pedestrian

There was tension on Thursday when an angry mob burnt over 30 motorcycles on Jakande Estate, Isheri Road, Lagos State, after an okada rider crushed a man to death. It was gathered that the yet-to-be-identified okada rider was plying one way when he rammed into the victim, who was standing by the roadside at First Junction Bus-Stop. The victim was said to have died due to the impact of the collision. Newsmen learnt that youths angered by the incident protested against the victim’s death.

During the protest, the mob pounced on the okada rider and was on the verge of lynching him when some policemen rescued him. The protesters were said to have also seized motorcycles from other riders who plied the scene of the accident during the demonstration. While some riders attempted retrieving their motorcycles, others, out of fear of being attacked by the mob, abandoned theirs and fled.

The police were said to have rushed the injured okada rider to a nearby hospital for treatment when the mob set the abandoned motorcycles ablaze. The President, Landlord Resident Association, Jakande Estate, Oke Afa, Fatai Oloko, said the police and the Vice Chairman of the Ejigbo Local Council Development Area, were making efforts to avert a reprisal and restore normalcy in the area.