Good morning Nigeria, welcome to the Editor roundup of top newspaper headlines in Nigeria for today, Monday, 31st July 2023.
1. The leader of the separatist Indigenous People of Biafra, Nnamdi Kanu, was on Sunday returned to the custody of the Department of State Services after being released on Saturday to be attended to by his personal physician. According to IPOB, Kanu is suspected to be suffering from an ear infection and needs surgery.
2. President Bola Tinubu has appointed a Special Investigator to probe the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) and Related Entities. In a letter sighted by journalists on Sunday, the president named Jim Osayande Obazee, ex-Chief Executive Officer, Financial Reporting Council of Nigeria (FRCN), as the investigator.
3. The leadership of the Labour Party on Sunday knocked President Bola Tinubu over the first batch of ministerial nominees unveiled by the Senate on Thursday. The LP said the ministerial nominees were an assemblage of ‘recycled, spent forces and anti-democratic elements.’
4. The Lamidi Apapa faction of the Labour Party (LP) has opposed a planned nationwide protest by the Nigerian Labour Congress (NLC). The faction, which has had a running battle with the one led by Julius Abure, said Nigerian workers can protest the growing hardship in the country by staying away from work until their demands are met by the Federal Government.
5. Niger’s military leaders have warned the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) not to send troops to the Republic of Niger. General Abdourahmane Tchiani, also known as Omar Tchiani, and the chief of Niger’s presidential guard, declared himself leader while the country’s elected president, Mohamed Bazoum, has been held by the military since the coup took place last week.
6. One person was killed and another injured while several shops and homes were burnt down during an alleged operation by government officials on some Hausa communities in Owerri West Local Government Area of Imo State.
7. The Niger State Government has said that it has not received any letter from the State Assembly suspending the screening of commissioner nominees.The Chief Press Secretary of the Governor, Bologi Ibrahim stated this while reacting to the allegation on Sunday that the lawmakers suspended the screening of the nominees over alleged inequality, including having few Christians on the list.
8. The Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) has issued a seven-day ultimatum to the military junta in the Republic of Niger to reinstate President Mohamed Bazoum as democratically elected President or face a range of stiff sanctions. ECOWAS, which recognised Bazoum as the legitimate President of the nation, threatened to impose land border closures and no-fly zone conditions on Niger Republic should the military coup masterminds fail to heed its ultimatum.
9. The Catholic Bishops Conference of Nigeria, CBCN, on Sunday raised the alarm that the removal of fuel subsidy without cushioning the effects has put the country on the brink of collapse. President of CBCN, Most Rev. Lucius Iwejuru Ugorji, who raised the alarm in a homily in Owerri, said Nigeria might be heading for the precipice if nothing urgent is done to effectively check the current economic crisis facing the nation and its citizens.
10. Men of the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency, NDLEA, have arrested a Lekki-based artiste’s manager and his accomplice, an Ikoyi businessman, both of whom were said to specialise in the distribution of illicit drugs to fun seekers at highbrow night clubs and lounges in Lekki and other areas on the Island of Lagos State.
