1. The military and the Inspector-General of Police, Kayode Egbetokun, have declared a battle against hoodlums who may be planning to snatch ballot boxes during Saturday’s governorship elections in Kogi, Bayelsa, and Imo states. The security chiefs threatened to deal with troublemakers just as the police authorities said they had deployed 67,000 personnel in Kogi and Bayelsa states ahead of the polls.
2. The Federal Government, on Monday, revealed that more than N4.3tn worth of crude oil was stolen in 7,143 pipeline vandalism cases within a period of five years. It disclosed this at the Nigeria International Pipeline Technology and Security Conference in Abuja, with the theme, ‘Bolstering Regulations, Technology and Security for Growth.’ The conference was organised by the Pipeline Professionals Association of Nigeria.
3. The naira crashed against the dollar on Monday, falling to 1, 030/$ on the average in the parallel market, losing the momentum it gathered last week. This represents a N80 loss or a 8.42 per cent decline of the local currency compared to the N950 it closed the week at last Friday.
4. The Rivers State Police Command said it had begun the probe of the death of another female student of the University of Port Harcourt, whose body was found in her apartment in Aluu, Ikwerre Local Government Area of the state. The lady simply identified as Adaeze, was said to be a 200-level undergraduate of accounting, though the cause of her death could not be ascertained at the moment.
5. The presidential candidate of the Labour Party in the 2023 election, Peter Obi, on Monday, said the Supreme Court judgment that affirmed Bola Tinubu’s victory in the election as the nation’s president is a breach of Nigerians’ trust in the judiciary arm. The former Anambra governor said this in a world press conference held at his campaign headquarters in Abuja, while responding to the Supreme Court verdict.
6. The Minister of Works under President Goodluck Jonathan’s administration, Arch Mike Onolememen, and a former governorship aspirant of the Peoples Democratic Party, who stepped down for Governor Godwin Obaseki in 2020 when he defected from the APC to the PDP, Gideon Ikhine and their followers were received into the All Progressives Congress, APC on Monday ahead of next year’s election.
7. Anambra State Governor, Chukwuma Soludo, on Monday, lost his father, Pa Simeon Nwankwo Soludo. A short statement by the Press Secretary of the Governor, Mr Christian Aburime, announced Pa Soludo’s passing.
8. There was confusion in Abuja on Monday when fire gutted the ‘Samsung Plaza’ around Banex Junction in the Wuse 2 district of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) Abuja. Workers and passersby were seen running to salvage what they could.
9. A High Court of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) has restated its earlier order directing the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) to either release former Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) Governor Godwin Emefiele unconditionally or produce him in court tomorrow for him to get bail. Justice Olukayode Adeniyi restated the order yesterday at the resumed hearing in a fundamental rights enforcement suit filed by Emefiele.
10. The Lagos State Magistrates’ Court in Yaba, on Monday, sent back to custody a 37-year-old auxiliary nurse, Fisayo Ogedengbe, arrested by the police in connection with the controversial death of hip-hop artiste, Ilerioluwa Aloba, alias Mohbad. The nurse, it was alleged, gave the late singer some injections that resulted in his death.