10 top stories from Nigerian newspapers Saturday morning, January 18, 2020

These 10 top stories from Nigerian newspapers will interest you this Saturday morning, January 18, 2020

1. Buhari didn’t influence election petitions judges – Olanipekun

The Lead Counsel to President Muhammadu Buhari in the 2019 presidential election petition, Chief Wole Olanipekun (SAN), said on Friday the President never used his position to influence the decision of the courts in the election petitions. Olanipekun, according to a statement by the Senior Special Assistant on Media and Publicity to the President, Garba Shehu, stated this at a dinner organised by President Buhari for members of his legal team for the 2019 presidential election petition in Abuja. Olanipekun said the President’s victory in courts was based on the facts of the law. Read more

2. I will handover quietly to my successor in 2023 —Buhari

President Muhammadu Buhari said on Friday he would quietly handover to whoever succeeds him in 2023. In a statement issued by his Special Assistant on Media and Publicity, Garba Shehu, the President said he was a beneficiary of a free and fair election in the country and would bequeath the same to his successor.

Buhari, who spoke in Abuja at a dinner with members of his legal team in 2019 presidential election, said he was overwhelmed by the number of people that supported him during the election campaigns. He said the turnout of Nigerians during his presidential campaigns in the 36 states of the federation convinced him that his re-election was not a fluke. Read more

3. Even partially mad people won’t react like PDP over loss of Imo —Oshiomhole

The National Chairman of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Adams Oshiomhole, has criticised the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) over the manner the party reacted to the loss of the governorship position in Imo State. He said the PDP was reckless and reacted in a manner that “partially mad people” cannot behave in a democracy. A seven-man panel of the Supreme Court had on Tuesday sacked the PDP government of Imo State led by Emeka Ihedioha and declared Hope Uzodinma of the APC as the state governor. Read more

4. Ubah appeals sack from Senate, says ‘I was denied fair hearing by lower court’

The Senator representing Anambra South Senatorial District, Ifeanyi Ubah, on Friday evening filed an appeal at the Court of Appeal, Abuja, to challenge his sack from the upper legislative chamber. A High Court of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) had earlier on Friday sacked the chairman of the Capital Oil and Gas for alleged certificate forgery. Justice Bello Kawu had declined to set aside his earlier judgement that nullified Ubah’s election for allegedly using a forged National Examination Council (NECO) certificate to contest the February 23, 2019 National Assembly election in Anambra South. Read more

5. So, what has become of the $1bn ‘arranged’ to fight Boko Haram?

The theater Commander of Operation Lafiya Dole, Major General Olusegun Adeniyi, in the evening of Monday, January 6, 2020, survived an ambush by Boko Haram insurgents along Maiduguri-Damaturu road. Adeniyi was going to Maiduguri, Borno State capital, after a visit to troops deployed to Jakana – a town on Maiduguri-Damaturu highway – when he was attacked. This awful incident served as a big alert to Nigerians that the Boko Haram terrorists are still on the prowl, despite claims by the Federal Government that they have been largely decimated.

A week earlier, the former Senate Majority Leader, Senator Ali Ndume, lamented that poor funding was one fundamental problem punctuating the fight against the Boko Haram insurgency. “The challenge that the military have now is lack of resources and inadequate personnel. As long as the resources are not deployed in terms of what they would need, we would continue to have this (insurgency) challenge. In an operation like this, we have only 30,000 soldiers on ground which is grossly inadequate. They (Federal Government) have to do something urgently about that,” he said.

Ndume’s lamentation brings to mind the $1 billion approved by the National Economic Council (NEC), in December 2017, for President Muhammadu Buhari, to procure military equipment to fight Boko Haram. “We expect that the amount will include but not limited to the purchase of equipment, procuring intelligence, logistics and all that is required to ensure that we finally put an end to the scourge of insurgency,” Governor Godwin Obaseki of Edo State, said. Read more

Read also: 10 top stories from Nigerian newspapers Friday morning, January 17, 2020

6. EFCC arrests Benue Assembly Clerk for alleged N220m fraud

The EFCC spokesperson said the clerk’s wife and daughters had been handed over to the police for prosecution while he (suspect) would be arraigned in court at the end of an investigation into the matter. The zonal Head of Public Affairs of the EFCC, in Benue, Nwanyinma Okeanu, said in a statement the Clerk was arrested and detained after a valid remand warrant was obtained from the Federal High Court in Makurdi, the state capital She said: “He is being investigated for an alleged case of fraud, stealing and misappropriation of public funds to the tune of N220million. Read more

7. IMO: PDP to protest Supreme Court’s ‘miscarriage of justice’ – Secondus

The National Chairman of the People Democratic Party (PDP), Uche Secondus, said on Friday the party would protest Tuesday’s Supreme Court ruling which sacked Emeka Ihedioha as governor of Imo State. Secondus, who disclosed this at the party’s emergency National Executive Committee meeting in Abuja, said the proposed protest was to impress on Nigerians that injustice had been done to the party. He also said the declaration of the All Progressives Congress candidate, Hope Uzodinma, as the Imo State Governor was a miscarriage of Justice. Read more

8. Yoruba may consider secession over 2023 presidency issues —Afenifere

The pan-Yoruba socio-political organisation, Afenifere, has slammed Miyetti Allah over its remarks that the South-West may lose the 2023 presidency, if it fails to do away with the newly created security outfit, Operation Amotekun. Reacting to the comments made by Miyetti Allah Kaute Hore which had described Amotekun as illegal saying it may affect the chances of the region to produce the presidency in 2023, Afenifere’s National Publicity Secretary; Mr. Yinka Odumakin said that the north can go to hell with its presidency. Odumakin who described the remarks by Miyetti Allah as insolence said that Yoruba people can opt for self-determination and have their own president. Read more

9. CUSTOMS: Senator alleges fraud in recruitment and postings

The ongoing recruitment into the Nigeria Customs Service (NCS) has continued to generate interest with several intrigues and revelations coming to the fore. The NCS had recently shortlisted over 160,000 candidates for 3,200 openings and called them for a written test early in the week. The conduct of the recruitment has however raised eyebrows in many quarters, with the Deputy Chairman of the Senate Committee on Customs, Senator Francis Fadahunsi, branding the recruitment exercise a fraud. Fadahunsi, a retired Assistant Comptroller General of Customs, in a statement on Friday, accused the Comptroller General of the NCS, Hammed Ali, of being economical with the truth on the recruitment into the service and should not be trusted. Read more

10. NDDC staff gets 7 years imprisonment over N4m contract fraud

A staff of the Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC), Tarila Ebizimor has been sentenced to seven years imprisonment for obtaining N4 million under false pretence. Ebizimor was committed to prison by Justice A.T. Mohammed of the Federal High Court, Port Harcourt, on Friday, January 17, 2020. The convict, a supervisor in the security department of the NDDC was prosecuted by the Port Harcourt Zonal Office of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), on a four-count charge. Ebizimor’s journey to prison began in August, 2013, when he paraded himself as personal assistant of the managing director of the NDDC and obtained the sum of N4 million from the petitioner on the pretext that he will help facilitate the award of road construction contract to him. Read more

Join the conversation

Opinions

Support Ripples Nigeria, hold up solutions journalism

Balanced, fearless journalism driven by data comes at huge financial costs.

As a media platform, we hold leadership accountable and will not trade the right to press freedom and free speech for a piece of cake.

If you like what we do, and are ready to uphold solutions journalism, kindly donate to the Ripples Nigeria cause.

Your support would help to ensure that citizens and institutions continue to have free access to credible and reliable information for societal development.

Donate Now