10 Biggest Nigerian News Stories To Know This Friday Morning

Good morning to you! Here is today’s roundup from the Nigerian Newspapers:

1. Zamfara State Governor Dauda Lawal has disclosed that he declined to pay a N300 million ransom demanded by kidnappers who abducted his brothers in 2019, saying he would not negotiate with criminals rather than encourage the growing menace of kidnapping for ransom. “My decision is based on the fact that paying ransom only emboldens criminal groups to continue to abduct innocent people,” the governor said.

2. Danladi Umar, the former Chairman of the Code of Conduct Tribunal, has been remanded at the Kuje Correctional Centre in Abuja by a High Court of the Federal Capital Territory, FCT, sitting in Maitama. The remand order was given by Justice Peter Kekemeke after Umar was arraigned by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC on a four-count charge of conferring undue advantage on himself while serving as the chairman of the CCT.

3. The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC, on Thursday arraigned the leader of Miyetti Allah Kautal Hore, Bello Bodejo, before Justice Inyang Ekwo of the Federal High Court, Abuja, on an alleged $2.33 million money laundering offence. Bodejo, who was earlier detained by the Department of State Services, DSS before being transferred to the EFCC, was arraigned before Justice Daniel Osiagor on a 12-count charge bordering on alleged money laundering.

4. The Federal Government has said it has doubled the minimum monthly salary of Nigerian soldiers from N49,000 to N100,000 in its latest move to improve troop welfare and boost morale. Minister of Defence, Christopher Musa, said the salary review in a TV interview. He called the development a welfare enhancement by the present administration for the military.

5. Minister of the Federal Capital Territory, FCT, Nyesom Wike, has said President Bola Tinubu sees governance as a serious business that must work. A mindset, he said, that had led to the unprecedented infrastructural revolution sweeping the nation’s capital.

6. A Nigerian Army captain and two soldiers have been feared killed after their patrol vehicle struck an improvised explosive device, IED during a routine operation in Borgu Local Government Area of Niger State. The incident took place on Tuesday in Maciyan-Kyada village in Babanna Ward, when troops on patrol from Babanna town ran over an IED suspected to have been laid by terrorists, a security source said.

7. The disclosure by the Minister of Defence, Christopher Musa that Nigerian soldiers now earn a minimum monthly salary of N100,000 has trailed reactions. Veterans and serving personnel said it was grossly inadequate. This is as they accused President Bola Tinubu of failing to implement a salary increment he promised almost four months ago.

8. President Bola Tinubu on Thursday withheld his assent to two bills passed by the National Assembly, citing constitutional issues and defects that need to be addressed before the proposed legislation can become law. The President’s decision was conveyed to the Senate through two separate letters read on the floor of the chamber by the Senate President, Godswill Akpabio.

9. The Zamfara State Police Command says it has repelled coordinated bandit attacks in Gummi, Talata Mafara and Gusau Local Government Areas, rescuing an abducted staff of the Independent National Electoral Commission and other captives while recovering hundreds of rustled cattle. This was disclosed by the command’s spokesperson, DSP Yazid Abubakar, in a statement made available to newsmen on Thursday.

10. The Nigeria Police Force and other respondents have been ordered by a Federal High Court in Calabar to pay N100 million damages for the torture and killing of a 22-year-old man, Onyekachi Mba. The judgment was delivered on Thursday by Justice Ijeoma Ojukwu in a fundamental rights enforcement suit filed by the applicant and deceased’s mother, Mrs Victoria Mba through her counsel, Chief Roland Ndubuka.