Across Nigeria’s 36 states and the Federal Capital Territory, these are the five top news stories you shouldn’t miss:

NLC suspends planned Thursday strike

The Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) announced Tuesday, it has suspended its proposed nationwide protest action over petrol subsidy removal. NLC had in December fixed January 27 and February 2 for its protest across 36 against the subsidy removal. But the Nigerian government through the Minister of Finance had Monday, announced a reversal of its plan to remove subsidy.

Judges sentences ‘sexual monster’ to life imprisonment

An Ikeja Domestic Violence and Sexual Offences Court Tuesday, sentenced one Sunday Oyedele to life imprisonment for defiling the three-year-old daughter of his neighbour. While handing down the sentence, Justice Abiola Soladoye described the convict as a “sexual monster.” Oyedele was convicted of a one-count charge of defilement brought against him by the state.

Government will borrow more as states struggle to survive, OPS warns

The Organised Private Sector (OPS) Tuesday, reacted to Federal Government’s suspension of the planned withdrawal of the subsidy regime, saying there would be dire consequences. The Lagos Chamber of Commerce and Industry (LCCI), Director-General, Dr Chinyere Almona, argued that, with a monthly payment of about ₦250 billion to subsidise fuel consumption, an additional ₦1.5 trillion expenditure would have to be provided for in the 2022 Federal budget.

She added that with the additional expenditure against the projected revenue, deficit financing would be needed to support the budget expenditure, which might likely result in government borrowing more than projected, to finance the expenditure in the face of revenue mobilisation challenge.

National Assembly harmonises electoral bill, inserts ‘consensus’ clause

The two chambers of the National Assembly Tuesday harmonised their positions and inserted the “consensus” mode of nominating candidates by political parties for elections in the Electoral Act (Amendment) Bill 2010. While the Senate from the onset included the clause, the House of Representatives adopted only direct and indirect primary selection methods. The Green Chamber has now concurred with the position of the Red Chamber.

Nigeria drops five places on TI corruption perception rating

Nigeria has dropped five places on the 2021 corruption perception index published by Transparency International, TI, yesterday. The country scored 24 out of 100 points, ranking 154 out of 180 countries surveyed by the organisation. The organisation said the index didn’t show specific incidents of corruption in the country but the perception of corruption.

Omoleye Omoruyi

Omoleye Omoruyi… an apprentice web/game developer, novelist, sensitive to happenings in the world. Meet him @Lord_rickie on Twitter/Instagram