Good morning Nigeria. Welcome to the Editor roundup of top newspaper headlines in Nigeria for today, Friday, 22nd March 2024.
1. States are slowing down the take-off of state police, the Federal Government said on Thursday. Frowning at the snail-like speed by the National Economic Council’s, NEC, Ad-hoc Committee on State Policing Initiative, Vice President Kashim Shettima observed that responses by some governors were not impressive.
2. The Nigerian Army on Thursday vowed that it would not rest until those who killed its four officers and 13 men were arrested and weapons stolen from the deceased retrieved. To achieve these, it said that troops would remain in the creeks of Okuama, Ughelli South Local Government Area where the officers and men met their death and neighbouring communities.
3. The National Chairman of the Labour Party, LP, Julius Abuse has said the invasion of the party’s secretariat by the leadership of the Nigeria Labour Congress, NLC, was a show of shame, rascality, abuse of office and of the law of the land. In a statement on Thursday by the acting National Publicity Secretary of the Labour Party, Obiora Ifoh, Abure said the party informed all the stakeholders, including the NLC about its planned convention.
4. Through its National Working Committee, NWC, the All Progressives Congress, APC, yesterday directed its members to stop all cases they filed in the name of the party. They were given seven days to discontinue or withdraw such pending litigations, failing which the party threatened to sanction erring members.
5. President Bola Tinubu said last night that security and economic challenges will end soon. ‘The challenges will soon be over’, Tinubu told National Assembly members, who were at the State House for Iftar to break Ramadan fast. Acknowledging concerns, Tinubu praised the armed forces for their sacrifice, and vowed to uphold Nigeria’s sovereignty.
6. Governor Sheriff Oborevwori of Delta State has cautioned the traditional rulers against protecting any of their subjects involved in the killing of 17 military personnel in Okuama community of Ughelli South Local Government Area. The governor gave the warning while addressing the monarchs on the incident at the State Traditional Rulers’ Council Secretariat in Asaba, on Thursday.
7. Naira maintained a steady appreciation against the United States dollar on Thursday, gaining N18 to close 1,382/$ at the official market. This came as the Presidency warned currency speculators to desist from unpatriotic acts against the nation’s currency, saying racketeers would have their fingers burnt.
8. The Federal Government through the Ministry of Solid Development Minerals has secured the services of 2,220 security personnel under a new security architecture with the mandate to smoke out illegal miners and all those who flout the nation’s mining laws.
9. An Ekiti State High Court, Ado Ekiti Division, has sentenced a 28-year-old man, Ayodeji Alomoge, to death by hanging for killing a man who was having an affair with his wife. Alomoge, who was tried on a count bordering on murder, according to the charge, had “on 21st of June, 2022, at Ikere Ekiti, murdered one Ogunleye Ayomide, contrary to Section 234 of the Criminal Law of Ekiti State, 2021.”
10. The Lagos State Police Command, on Thursday, announced that its operatives busted a fake drink factory in the Agege area of the state and arrested four suspects connected to the illegal factory. This comes as the police stated they had initiated an investigation into the alleged production and distribution of counterfeit drinks by the suspects.
