The Big 5: CAN tells Buhari to suspend second term ambition, Atletico Madrid defeat Super Eagles in Uyo and other stories

These are the top stories you should be monitoring today:

The Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN), on Tuesday,  called on President Muhammadu Buhari to suspend his second term ambition, until he had addressed and put to an end the killings by herdsmen.

This was contained in a statement by its spokesman, Pastor Bayo Oladeji, said, “While CAN is not opposed to the President’s exercise of his civic right by seeking re-election for the second time, we urge him to halt it for now and attend to the security problems occasioned by the criminal activities of the terrorists, herdsmen and bandits.”

“CAN asks President Buhari to suspend his re-election bid until he restores sanity to the country while ensuring the release of Leah Sharibu, the remaining Chibok girls and other hostages from the captivity of the Boko Haram terrorists,” the statement added.


President Buhari on Tuesday met with a 10-man Senate delegation raised to address the ongoing impasse between the Senate President Bukola Saraki and the Inspector-General of Police (IGP) over a criminal case involving some suspected cultists.

Members of the senate delegation included former governors of Nasarawa (Abdullahi Adamu), Gombe (Danjuma Goje) and Akwa Ibom, Godswill Akpabio and the Senior Special Assistant to the President on National Assembly matters (Senate), Ita Enang who also accompanied the Senators to the meeting.

Senate President Bukola Saraki on Wednesday had accused the IGP of plotting to implicate him and Gov. Abdulfatah Ahmed of Kwara in a murder case involving some suspected cultists, days after the Senate on May 9 passed  a vote of no confidence on the IGP, describing him as “enemy of democracy’’ over his failure to honour its invitations twice.


Europa League winners Atletico Madrid beat a Nigerian selection 3-2 in a friendly game on Tuesday at the Godswill Akpabio International Stadium in Uyo.

Kelechi Nwakali and Norway-based midfielder, Usman Mohammed scored for Nigeria in the 31st and 79th minute, while Atletico players Angel Correa, Fernando Torres and Borja Garces scored for their team.


Former President Olusegun Obasanjo has responded to the comments by President Buhari that his administration (1999 – 2007) wasted $16 billion on power projects without anything to show for it.

The former president said, “It has come to the attention of Chief Olusegun Obasanjo that a statement credited to President Muhammadu Buhari, apparently without correct information and based on ignorance, suggested that $16 billion was wasted on power projects by “a former President”.

For the records, Chief Obasanjo has addressed the issues of the power sector and the allegations against him on many occasions and platforms, including in his widely publicised book, My Watch in which he exhaustively stated the facts and reproduced various reports by both the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), which conducted a clinical investigation into the allegations against Chief Obasanjo, and the Ad-Hoc Committee on the Review of the Recommendations in the Report of the Committee on Power on the Investigation into how the Huge Sums Of Money was Spent on Power Generation, Transmission And Distribution between June 1999 and May 2007 without Commensurate Result.”


Security agencies Tuesday arrested hundreds of members of the Igbo separatist group, Movement for the Actualisation of the Sovereign States of Biafra (MASSOB), celebrating ‘Biafra Day’ in the South-east as well as Rivers.

The rally was called by the Ralph Uwazuruike-led faction of MASSOB to celebrate the rededication of Biafra by Mr Uwazuruike in Aba, Abia State on May 22, 2000.


And stories from around the world:

Guinea President Alpha Conde has named Ibrahima Kassory Fofana as the country’s new prime minister amid heightened political tensions and suspicion about the president’s intentions ahead of a 2020 election.

Fofana, a Conde loyalist and former minister of investment and public-private partnerships, replaces Mamady Youla, who resigned last week along with his government, according to a decree read on state television on Monday.


Venezuela ordered the expulsion of the top two US diplomats in the country Tuesday, charging it was the victim of a “political and financial lynching” after Washington tightened sanctions over Nicolas Maduro’s re-election.

President Nicolas Maduro announced the expulsions in a televised speech after being officially proclaimed the winner of Sunday’s election in the South American nation mired in an acute economic crisis and facing growing international isolation.

The vote was boycotted by the main opposition parties and widely condemned by the international community, including the United States, which denounced it as a “sham.” (AFP)


North Korea has accepted a list of South Korean reporters to visit their nuclear testing site after a days-long tug of war with Seoul, South Korea’s unification ministry said on Wednesday.

North Korea invited a handful of media from a number of countries to witness the dismantling of the Punggye-ri testing site to uphold its pledge to discontinue nuclear tests. However, it had declined to take the South Korea reporters after calling off planned inter-Korean talks in protest against U.S.-South Korean air combat drills.

The invitation to witness the dismantling of the Punggye-ri site was seen as an indication that North Korea’s unexpected offer to end its nuclear tests still held despite renewed diplomatic uncertainty. (Reuters)


A senior Iranian military official branded U.S. leaders disloyal and cruel on Wednesday and told parliament, Tehran would not bow to Washington’s pressure to limit its military activities.

“Iranian armed forces are now, thanks to God, more prepared than ever and will not wait for the permission or approval of any power to develop defense capabilities,” Major General Mohammad Bagheri was quoted as saying by the state news agency IRNA.


A Catholic archbishop in Australia, Philip Wilson who was convicted of concealing child sexual abuse has said he will step down from his duties on Friday.

He disclosed this in a statement released on Wednesday, but did not indicate whether he would appeal the Newcastle Local Court’s conviction, for which he faces a maximum two year sentence.

Wilson, the archbishop of Adelaide, South Australia, was found guilty of covering up the crimes of a paedophile priest by a court on Tuesday and is the most senior Catholic in the world to be convicted of the offence. (BBC)

 

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