News Update.

 The National Working Committee of the Labour Party has said it was not offended by Thursday’s outburst of the party’s presidential candidate, Peter Obi, over the controversial creation of the Obidient Movement directorate. The LP NWC said Obi had the right to express his grievance, adding that there was no plan or contemplation to relieve Obi of his party leadership role.

. Candidates of the All Progressives Congress (APC) in the local government election held at the weekend in Yobe State have been declared winners of all the chairmanship and councillorship seats. The Chairman of the Yobe State Independent Electoral Commission (YOIEC), Dr. Mamman Muhammad, made the announcement at the commission’s headquarters in Damaturu on Saturday.

###############

State governments are getting set to eliminate electricity subsidies in their territories as more states gear up to join others in running their different power markets under their own laws. In a document put together by the Nigeria Governors’ Forum, the states also stated that they would implement different electricity tariffs in their domains.

################

 Operatives of the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency, on Friday, intercepted no fewer than 175,000 bottles of codeine shipment from India en route to Enugu State, barely one week after it seized a similar shipment in Rivers State. This is just as the anti-narcotics agency arrested a Nigerien for concealing drugs in pesticide tanks and 19 others in multiple raids across the country.

###########
 About 30 travelers, including some students of the Federal Polytechnic, Nasarawa, were reportedly abducted by suspected kidnappers along the Abuja-Nasarawa Highway on Friday. It was gathered on Sunday that the kidnappers laid siege to the vehicles conveying the travelers and abducted them into a nearby bush in the Uke area of Nasarawa State.

###########
. The police in the Federal Capital Territory, Abuja, say they arrested no fewer than four suspected members of a kidnapping gang terrorizing the FCT and its environs. The FCT Police Public Relations Officer, Josephine Adeh, on Sunday, disclosed in a statement that the suspects were arrested on Friday following a raid of their hideouts in the Gidan Dogo and Kweti Forest in Kaduna State, a border to the FCT.
###########
 The Kwara State Muslim Pilgrims Board has announced the death of two of its pilgrims who returned to their Lord in Medina, Saudi Arabia. A statement by the Executive Secretary of the Kwara State Pilgrims Welfare Board, Abdulsalam Abdulkadir, yesterday said the Board “deeply regrets these sad events but submits totally to the decree and ultimate knowledge of Allah in all affairs.”

###########
 A chieftain of the All Progressives Congress (APC) and State Vice Chairman of the party in Edo State, Chief Francis Inegbeniki, has resigned his membership of the party. In his letter of resignation addressed to his Ward Chairman of Opoji, Esan Central Local Government Area of Edo State, dated June 8, 2024, he said that some recent developments in the party in his local government and state conflict with his core principles and values.

###########

President Bola Tinubu’s position on the N62,000 agreed on by the Federal Government and the Organised Private Sector as the new minimum wage will determine organised labour’s next line of action on the matter, the Nigerian Labour Congress (NLC) said on Sunday. The president of NLC, Joe Ajaero, made this known in an interview in Abuja.

###########

Fire has destroyed a soap factory and plastic dumping ground at Amanato Street, Ugwuagba Obosi in Idemili Northampton Local Government Area of Anambra.

Mr Chukwudi Chiketa, Chief Fire Officer, Anambra Fire Service, confirmed this development to newsmen in Onitsha.

###############

The Parish Priest of St. Thomas Parish, Zaman Dabo Community, in the Zango Kataf Local Government Area of Kaduna State, Rev. Father Gabriel Ukeh, has been kidnapped by bandits.

Rev. Father Gabriel Ukeh was in the early hours of Sunday abducted at the parish rectory.

##############

The Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Commission, ICPC, has secured the conviction of Quadri Ismail Adeyinka, a staff of the Nigeria Immigration Service for committing travel passport fraud.

ICPC arraigned the convict before Justice Jude Onwuegbuzie of the Federal Capital Territory High Court, Apo, Abuja, on a four-count charge bordering on gratification, conferment of corrupt advantage and cheating contrary to extant provisions of the Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Act 2000 and the Penal Code Act.

Counsel to ICPC, Dr Osuobeni Ekoi Akponimisingha, in the course of the trial, led evidence before the court on how Adeyinka defrauded Ovie Justice Ojeffia under the pretence of regularising the latter’s international passport.

Adeyinka, after receiving the sum of N100,000 from Ojeffia to regularise the said passport, reneged on their agreement.

The victim thereafter petitioned ICPC, which led to the investigation and arraignment of the convict before the court.

In his judgement, Justice Onwuegbuzie found Adeyinka guilty on all four counts and sentenced him to seven years each for counts 1 and 2, five years for count 4 and two years for count 3.

The sentences are to run concurrently.

From dailypost