Here are the top stories you should be monitoring today.

Atiku campaigns in Niger; promises women, youth employment

The presidential candidate of the People’s Democratic Party (PDP), Atiku Abubakar, has reiterated his promise to create more job opportunities for unemployed women and youth in the country, if elected president. He restated the promise on Wednesday in Minna, while addressing party supporters at a rally.

He also harped on the need for better infrastructural development in the state. Atiku also claimed that over 10 million Nigerians, including women and youth, had lost their jobs in the last three and half years of the All Progressives Congress-led administration.

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The Nigerian military authorities in Borno has debunked the reports of the Maiduguri-Damaturu barricade, stressing that the action by troops was not a closure of the highway as the road was reopened at about noon when soldiers pulled their barricade off the highway.

According to a statement by the Spokesperson of Operation Lafiya Dole, Onyema Nwachukwu, a Nigerian Army Colonel; “Our attention has been drawn to rumours that the Nigerian Army has closed the Maiduguri-Damaturu road. This is not true. What is happening is an ongoing clearance and snap checks operations in the general area required to clear suspected Boko Haram terrorists along the road.” 

Early Wednesday, it was reported that the Nigerian military authorities in Borno barricaded the Maiduguri-Damaturu highway. as residents of Maiduguri, Damaturu, and Potiskum towns of Borno and Yobe woke up to find that movement had been restricted along the 235km highway that cuts across the three community.

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Buhari has no integrity, his government is corrupt – Saraki

Speaking in a Channels TV interview on Wednesday, Senate President Bukola Saraki has said that President Buhari has no integrity and his government is corrupt.

”There is no doubt that there are corrupt people around the system. If the President is fighting corruption truly, I am baffled how a member of his government who was found wanting, up till today, no charge, no prosecution,” Saraki said.

“To me, once you can do that, you lose integrity, the moral high ground to say you are fighting corruption. You must show that nobody is above the law, you must show that no matter how close anybody is to you that you’ll take action and that’s not happening,” he said.

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Buhari blames Gaddafi for Nigeria’s insecurity issues again

Following the toxic rise of terrorist acts in Northern states, President Muhammadu Buhari has once again blamed the nation’s insecurity issues on former Libyan president Muammar Gadaffi, ascribing to the fact that the terrorists are pro-Gaddafi who escaped from Libya after the death of their leader in 2011 took to terrorism, the brunt of which Nigeria and some other African countries are currently bearing.

In April and while speaking with the Archbishop of Canterbury, Justin Welby in Buhari said the arms Mr Gaddafi provided to his supporters had filtered into Nigeria where they are now being used to fuel killings across the North-central.

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JAMB candidates with biometric problems to write exams in Abuja

As part of new measures to curb cheating in its examinations, the Joint Admissions and Matriculations Board (JAMB) has said any candidate with biometric issues must now report at its office in Abuja to resolve the issues and write the examinations. This was revealed in a phone interview with Premium Times.

According to the board, such a candidate will write the examination in any of the board’s accredited centres in Abuja.

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