The Newspapers – Things You Need To Know This Thursday

Good morning! Here is today’s summary from Nigerian Newspapers:

1. Two members of a robbery gang involved in a series of attacks on Ajegunle, Lagos State, and its environs, were on Saturday shot dead during a gun battle with the police. The killed robbers, identified as Sadiq, alias Foreigner and Habeeb, aka Kiki, who were recently released from the Kirikiri Custodial Centre, had been on the wanted list of the police.

2. Amid tensions, some elders of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, yesterday, intervened in the crisis rocking the party by giving approval for the constitution of the presidential campaign council. It was gathered that while some PDP leaders are pushing for the party to wield the big stick against those engaged in anti-party activities, other leaders are more favourably disposed to ongoing reconciliatory efforts.

3. Following the rescue of three POS (Point-Of-Sale) fraudsters who attempted to snatch the cash of an operator at the Lokogoma area of Abuja from being lynched by an angry mob, the FCT Commissioner of Police, Sunday Babaji has warned residents of the FCT to shun jungle justice.

4. The presidential candidate of All Progressives Congress, APC, Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu, and his counterpart on the platform of Labour Party, LP, Mr Peter Obi, were yesterday locked in verbal war over the former’s accusation of the latter’s supporters of mudslinging and spreading fake news against other candidates ahead of the 2023 general elections.

5. An Osun State Chief Magistrate’s Court has remanded a suspected cultist, Rasheed Hammed, popularly known as Oko-ilu, in Ilesa correctional centre over alleged murder. The Police arrested Rasheed, who had been terrorising Ede town, last Saturday, after three months of being declared wanted for committing various offences.

6. Former Accountant-General of the Federation, AGF, Ahmed Idris, who was accused of siphoning public funds to the tune of about N109.4 billion, has approached the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC, for a plea bargain. Counsel to the EFCC, Mr. Rotimi Jacobs, SAN, disclosed this yesterday.

7. As part of measures to put its house in order ahead of the February general election, the ruling All Progressives Congress, APC, is contemplating an emergency meeting of its National Executive Committee, NEC soon. While the NWC, which met on Wednesday is proposing the NEC for next month, it was gathered that the final decision would be subject to approval by President Muhammadu Buhari.

8. The air component of Operation Whirl Punch in the North West has killed a notorious bandits’ leader, Alhaji Shanono, and 17 of his men at Ukambo, a village in Kaduna. The killings came as the Chief of Air Staff, Air Marshal Oladayo Amao, who commended troops for the feat, advised them not to let down their guards but to sustain the tempo in the onslaught against terrorists and bandits terrorising the country.

9. Bandits have attacked immigration officers, killing one and injuring two others in Birniwa Local Government Area of Jigawa State. State Comptroller of the Nigerian Immigration Service, ACG Ismail Abba Aliyu, stated this on Wednesday while briefing newsmen at the NIS Headquarters in Dutse.

10. In light of Nigeria’s dwindling revenue, the continued payment of trillions of naira on fuel subsidy by the government and the attendant economic challenges, the World Bank on Wednesday raised the alarm that the country might be facing an existential threat.