Author: Drum Africa Correspondent

The Senate has confirmed the appointment of five Resident Electoral Commissioners submitted by President Bola Tinubu in March for the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC). The confirmation followed the receipt and consideration of a report by the Chairman of Senate Committee on Electoral Matters during plenary on Wednesday. Presenting the report on behalf of the Committee, Senator Simon Lalong, urged the Senate to confirm the nomination of five individuals as Resident Electoral Commissioners for the Independent National Electoral Commission having passed the screening exercise. The approved RECs are Umar Yusuf Garba (Kano State), Sa’ad Umar Idris (Bauchi State), Chukwuemeka C.…

The 379,997 candidates in the five states of the South East and Lagos will be rescheduled for another Unified Tertiary and Matriculation Examination. The Registrar of JAMB, Prof. Ishaq Oloyede, made this known in a press briefing in Abuja on Wednesday. “206,610 in 65 centres were affected in Lagos and 92 centres in Owerri zone comprising of 173,387 candidates in the five states of the South East were affected,” he said. Oloyede, who took responsibility for what he described as a “sabotage” of the 2025 UTME, said the affected candidates will start getting text messages from the Board starting Thursday.…

The Nigeria Union of Allied Health Professionals (NUAHP) has demanded the immediate payment of the seven-month arrears of the 2024 pay rise. The demand is contained in a communique issued on Tuesday at the end of the national executive council (NEC) meeting of NUAHP and Joint Health Sector Unions (JOHESU) held in Jos, Plateau state. Kamal Ibrahim and Martin Egbanubi, national president and general secretary of NUAHP, respectively, jointly signed the communique. Members under the NUAHP include the pharmacists, physiotherapists, medical laboratory scientists, imaging scientists, and dental technologists. Others are occupational therapists, health information management practitioners, dental therapists, dietitians, and…

A former Minister of Transportation, Rotimi Amaechi, has said he and a former Governor of Jigawa State, Sule Lamido, would have challenged President Bola Tinubu over the nation’s current state of affairs if they were still serving as governors. The former governor of Rivers State stated this in Abuja on Tuesday at the public presentation of Lamido’s autobiography, ‘Being True to Myself’. Amaechi, who is also a former Chairman of the Nigeria Governors Forum, said their era was marked by bold opposition and a commitment to holding the Federal Government accountable. He said, “I asked you (Lamido) this morning, what…

The House of Representatives on Tuesday voted against a bill seeking rotational presidency in the country. During the plenary presided over by the Speaker, Abbas Tajudeen, the lower chamber also rejected six other constitution amendment bills after they failed to scale the second reading. They include ‘A Bill for an Act to Alter the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, 1999 to remove from Independent National Electoral Commission, the Powers of Registration and Regulation of Political Parties in Nigeria and Transfer same to the Office of the Registrar General of Political Parties and for Related Matters (HB. 2227) (Hon.…

A Kano State High Court has dismissed an application filed by the former governor of Kano State and National Chairman of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Dr. Abdullahi Umar Ganduje, alongside seven others, which challenged the court’s jurisdiction to hear the bribery and misappropriation case brought against them. The Kano State Government had filed an 11-count charge against Ganduje, his wife Hafsat Umar, and others, accusing them of bribery, conspiracy, misappropriation, and diversion of public funds amounting to billions of naira. Other defendants include Abubakar Bawuro, Umar Abdullahi Umar, Jibrilla Muhammad, Lamash Properties Limited, Safari Textiles Limited, and Lasage General…

The Senate on Tuesday asked the military to urgently redeploy personnel and advanced equipment to Borno and Yobe states, following a resurgence of attacks by Boko Haram terrorists in the areas.  The resolution followed renewed insurgent attacks in the North-East region, including the killing of over a dozen soldiers in Marte town of the Monguno Local Government Area on Monday, May 12, and a subsequent assault early Tuesday on Gajiram, the headquarters of the Nganzai Local Government Area. In a motion raised by the Senate Chief Whip, Tahir Munguno, lawmakers noted that while two-thirds of the local government areas in…

The Federal High Court in Abuja, on Tuesday, fixed June 27 to deliver judgment in the contempt claims filed by the Senate President, Godswill Akpabio, and Senator Natasha Akpoti-Uduaghan in the suit filed by the embattled lawmaker. Justice Binta Nyako would also deliver a judgment on the preliminary objection filed by all the defendants in the suit, including the senate president, challenging the jurisdiction of the court. Justice Nyako made this known after Michael Numa, SAN, who appeared for Akpoti-Uduaghan, and lawyers to the defendants identified and adopted their processes in the suit. “I want to believe that all processes…

Former Benue State Governor, Senator Gabriel Suswam, has warned that the Peoples Democratic Party could collapse before the 2027 elections if the party’s leaders don’t take serious steps to fix its problems. The PDP is currently battling over who should be the national secretary. Also, the party recently experienced a gale of defection when the Delta State Governor, Sheriff Oborevwori, his immediate predecessor, Senator Ifeanyi Okowa and other erstwhile leaders and members of the PDP moved to the All Progressives Congress, signifying a turning point in the state’s political history. Speaking on Arise TV’s The Morning Show on Tuesday, Suswam…

The Minister of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), Nyesom Wike, says suspended Governor Siminalayi Fubara of Rivers State is making reconciliatory moves and had, alongside two other governors, visited him.  Wike, the immediate past governor of Rivers State, said this on Monday following reports that Fubara, who was suspended earlier in the year, visited the FCT minister. “The President has called for peace severally and I cannot sit down when the President has called for peace and I say, ‘I don’t want peace’,” Wike said during a media parley with select journalists in Abuja. “Yes, he came with two governors…