Court sentences NURTW unit chairman to death for killing policeman (Punch)
Justice Olabisi Akinlade of the Lagos State High Court, on Wednesday, sentenced the Chairman of the National Union of Road Transport Workers, Boundary/Ayetoro unit in Lagos, Saheed Arogundade, to death by hanging for killing a police officer. Justice Akinlade convicted Arogundade after finding him guilty of conspiracy and murder of the officer, Gbenga Oladipupo. Saheed was charged alongside five others on two counts of conspiracy and murder. The other defendants were Mustapha Layeni, Adebayo Abdullahi, Seyi Pabiekun, Sikiru Rufai and Yusuf Arogundade. Read more
Buhari to PDP, EU: El-Rufai spoke in national interest (Nation)
Kaduna State Governor Mallam Nasir El-Rufai has stirred the hornet’s nest, with his warning that foreigners should not interfere in the conduct of the general elections. The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) yesterday threatened to pull out of the peace accord it signed with other parties before the National Peace Committee (NPC) chaired by former Head of State Gen. Abdulsalami Abubakar. The opposition party hinged its decision on the “death threats” issued by the governor, according to it, to officials of the United States (U.S.), United Kingdom (U.K.) and the European Union (E.U.). But the Presidency dismissed it all as a storm in a tea cup. “There is nothing more to sneeze at”, it said. Read more
CBN, others in custody of election materials (Guardian)
The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) yesterday disclosed that the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) has started taking delivery of sensitive electoral materials for the conduct of the general elections. Also, the different zonal stores and offices of INEC at state and local government offices are presently taking delivery of non-sensitive materials. National Commissioner and Chairman, Information and Voter Education Committee, Festus Okoye, who made this known at a media briefing in Abuja assured that the commission remains committed to a transparent electoral process. Read more
Ajimobi rescues, conveys accident victims to UCH (Nation)
Passers-by and jubilant residents of Iwo Road in Ibadan, the Oyo State capital, have lauded the humanitarian gesture of Governor Abiola Ajimobi for rescuing and evacuating some accident victims in the capital city. Then governor was also said to have conveyed them to the University College Hospital (UCH) in Ibadan. The governor, who personally accompanied the accident victims to the Accident and Emergency Ward of the hospital around 5 p.m on Tuesday, had just returned from Ado-Ekiti, the Ekiti State capital, where he attended President Muhammadu Buhari’s re-election campaign rally. Read more
Protest trails deployment of police commissioners (Guardian)
The deployment of police commissioners in the 36 states and the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) may have elicited anger as the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and the Conference of National Political Parties (CNPP) have picked holes in the choice of Asiwaju Ahmed Bola Tinubu’s former Chief Security Officer (CSO), Kayode Egbetokun, as the new chief cop in Kwara State. The PDP had earlier threatened to ditch the peace accord over what it called “the plot to redeploy a former Chief Security Officer to APC leader, Asiwaju Bola Tinubu, CP Kayode Egbetokun, as Kwara State Commissioner of Police, where he has been handed the instruction to incite the people, cause pandemonium and pave the way for outright rigging in favour of President (Muhammadu) Buhari and all other candidates on the platform of APC.” Read more
Abuja residents express frustration over collection of PVCs (Guardian)
Some residents of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), Abuja have expressed outrage against the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) over its failure to provide their Permanent Voter Cards (PVCs) six months after registration. Speaking to The Guardian, they said INEC officials told them that their cards were omitted during production and were asked to fill incident form after which they kept visiting the commission’s accredited centres to no avail. They said the officials kept posting them for over five months since the issuance of the cards began. Read more