Good morning Nigeria. Welcome to the Editor roundup of top newspaper headlines in Nigeria for today, Thursday, 4th January 2024.
1. Following the suspension of accreditation and evaluation of degree certificates from Benin Republic and Togo, the Federal Government has said sanctions would be extended to more countries like Uganda, Kenya and Niger Republic. “We are not going to stop at just Benin and Togo,” the Minister of Education, Tahir Mamman, said on Channels Television’s Politics Today programme on Wednesday.
2. Former Minister of Humanitarian Affairs, Disaster Management and Social Development, Sadiya Umar Farouq, risks arrest by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC, following her failure, on Wednesday, to honour an invitation by the anti-graft agency. EFCC wrote Umar Farouq to appear for questioning in furtherance of an ongoing probe into an alleged N37.1bn fraud during her tenure in office but she ignored the invitation.
3. The Rivers State Governorship candidate of the Social Democratic Party in the 2023 election, Senator Magnus Abe, has formally announced his return to the All Progressives Congress. Abe dumped the APC for the SDP ahead of the 2023 election where he secured the party’s ticket to contest the governorship election.
4. A former member of the House of Representatives from Ondo State, Mayowa Akinfolarin, has lamented that the handlers of the state have not been utilizing the human and natural resources it is endowed with. Akinfolarin, a two-term federal lawmaker who represented Ile-Oluji Okeigbo/Odigbo Federal Constituency between 2015 and 2023, declared that the state needed to be reconfigured.
5. Former President, Olusegun Obasanjo, on Wednesday, said mismanagement by the previous administrations forced Nigeria into a debt burden the coming generations would have no option but to pay. A statement by his media aide, Kehinde Akinyemi, indicated that the elder statesman spoke during an engagement with 2023 awardees of the Future Africa Leaders Foundation, an initiative of Pastor Chris Oyakhilome.
6. Ondo State Governor, Lucky Aiyedatiwa, has ordered the suspension of caretaker chairmen of the 18 local government areas and 33 local council development areas of the state. The suspension was contained in a letter signed by the Ministry of Local Government and Chieftaincy Affairs.
7. Operatives of the Delta State Police Command said they killed two suspected kidnappers and rescued a victim in the state. The command’s Public Relations Officer, DSP Bright Edafe, disclosed this to newsmen in Asaba. Edafe said the two suspects were certified dead in the hospital as a result of gunshot injuries sustained during a shootout with the operatives.
8. Residents of One-Man Village, near Mararaba, Nasarawa State, were on Tuesday night thrown into panic after armed men stormed a store and killed no fewer than four persons. The store, Wisdom Supermarket, is located along the Abuja-Keffi Expressway in Nasarawa State.
9. The Chief Imam of Jumma’at Mosque, Ndun village of Tangur District, Bokkos Local Government Area of Plateau State, Malam Muhammad Sani Idris, as well as an okada rider, Muhammad Gambo, have been killed. The Chairman of Gan Allah Fulani Development Association (GAFDAN), Garba Abdullahi, confirmed the incident on Wednesday.
10. The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) has tracked N30 billion of the N44 billion moved from the accounts of the National Social Investment Programme Agency (NSIPA). The multiple accounts to which the funds were moved by some NSIPA officials have been frozen by the anti-graft agency as part of an ongoing probe.
