Here are the major stories you should be monitoring today:

The Deputy Governor of Bauchi State, Nuhu Gidado, has resigned.

Mr Gidado informed Governor Mohammed Abubakar of his decision in a letter dated May 16.

In the letter, Mr Gidado explained that his decision was based on his commitment to serve for only a single term as deputy governor of the state, adding that staying on in office till the end of the term will be unfair to the state and his conscience.

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The Federation Account Allocation Committee (FAAC) has approved the sharing of N701.022 billion among Federal Government and states as revenue generated in the month of April 2018, representing an all-high level of revenue distributed in more than two years by FAAC.

According to the Minister of Finance, Mrs. Kemi Adeosun, the sharing was buoyed by improvement in all revenue generation platforms, including the non-oil window, leading to N24 billion sent to the domestic crude account for the first time in a very long time.

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 The Senate has directed the nation’s security chiefs and heads of paramilitary agencies, on Wednesday to submit special funding requests within two weeks.

 Senate President Bukola Saraki, who made the disclosure during a closed-door meeting with them, said the meeting also discussed the lack of coordination among the security agencies, blaming the situation for the failure to quell killings and kidnappings across the country.

They also resolved to accord priority to bills that would strengthen the nation’s security architecture.

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Ahead of the 2019 general elections, the House of Representatives on Wednesday passed for second reading, a bill for seeking to amend the provisions of the Electoral Act, No. 6, 2010 to further improve the electoral process and for related matters.

Agreement on whether the card reader should be used for the 2019 polls was however difficult, as members expressed divergent views on the subject, with some arguing that the card was not recognised by the country’s electoral law and others argued that the ruling of the Supreme Court justified the fresh move by the National Assembly to give a legal backing to the card ahead of the next elections.

The fresh bill was sponsored by the Chairman, House Committee on Electoral Matters, Hon. Aisha Dukku.

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The Federal Government has announced that two modular refineries in the Niger Delta will commence operations in the next one year.

The Minister of State for Petroleum Resources, Ibe Kachikwu, disclosed this on Wednesday in Abuja, also stated that a directive was issued recently for the release of funds for the clean-up of the oil polluted area of Ogoni in the Niger Delta.

“To date, we’ve targeted development and have approved 10 of those; two are basically on land and are under construction, and hopefully within the next one year, we will be able to deliver real results. We are also pushing for the other eight,” Kachikwu said.

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And stories from around the world:

A United States federal judge has ruled on Wednesday that is illegal for President Donald Trump to block people, especially Americans, from his personal Twitter account.

The ruling has been described as a major victory for free speech as modern communication platforms continue to stretch freedom of expression laws.

It followed a litigation by seven users who alleged the president unlawfully barred them from viewing his Twitter feed, according to U.S. media reports.

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North Korea called United States Vice-President Mike Pence “ignorant and stupid” for his warnings over a planned summit with Donald Trump, renewing a threat to cancel as the US president said the fate of the historic talks will be decided next week.

“I cannot suppress my surprise at such ignorant and stupid remarks gushing out from the mouth of the US vice-president,” vice-minister of Foreign Affairs Choe Son Hui said in a statement released by the state-run KCNA news agency.

“We will neither beg the US for dialogue nor take the trouble to persuade them if they do not want to sit together with us,” she said, adding she would recommend Kim cancel the talks if Washington continues to make such threats.

Trump is due to meet his North Korean counterpart Kim Jong Un in Singapore on June 12 for high stakes talks aimed at improving ties between both countries after decades of animosity. (AFP)

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The United States on Wednesday uninvited China from a major U.S.-hosted naval drill in response to what it sees as Beijing’s militarization of islands in the South China Sea, a decision China called unconstructive.

“As an initial response to China’s continued militarization of the South China Sea we have disinvited the People’s Liberation Army (PLA) Navy from the 2018 Rim of the Pacific (RIMPAC) Exercise,” said Lieutenant Colonel Christopher Logan, a Pentagon spokesman. (Reuters)

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At least four people were killed and 15 wounded in a suicide attack in Iraq’s capital Baghdad on Thursday, a military spokesman told journalists.

According to a statement from Iraq’s National Security media center, the attacker detonated an explosive vest after he was besieged by security forces at the entrance to the Saqlawiyah park, resulting in the death and injury of “a number of civilians.”

No group immediately claimed responsibility for the attack, though it bore the hallmarks of Islamic State. (Reuters)

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French President, Emmanuel Macron is planning to stage an international summit on Libya next week to push for presidential elections in the country to be held this year.

The meeting is also aimed at securing commitments from key Libyan political players that they will not to seek to disrupt the process, and agree on holding a politically inclusive national conference either inside or outside Libya in a bid to foster reconciliation after what has been constant chaos since the overthrow of Muammar Gaddafi in 2011.