These are the stories you should be monitoring today:
The Senator representing Kano Central opted instead to meet with former Vice President Atiku Abubakar who is a leading contender for the Presidential ticket of the PDP in what sources said may not be unconnected with permutations for the 2019 general elections.
While details of meeting which lasted for about 45 minutes were not made public, another source said the purpose of the visit was to pay Sallah homage to Atiku who was not in the country during the recent Eid El Fitr celebrations and as well use the occasion of the visit to discuss the state of the nation.
The leader of the new Peoples Democratic Party(nPDP) bloc of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Abubakar Kawu Baraje has warned the APC leadership not to celebrate yet, inspite of a successful convention on Saturday.
Baraje in a statement from his media office in Ilorin, maintained that his group (nPDP) will continue with its agitations even after the party’s National Convention, adding that they attended the convention “to demonstrate to the world and entire Nigerians and particularly to their supporters that they are loyal to the party.”
“We want to appreciate the entire Nigerians and our supporters and we want to let them know that our struggle is still on course and until the party addresses some of the major areas of concerns that will make live easy for Nigerians we remain undaunted,” Baraje said .
The Nigerian Army, 1 Division Kaduna has neutralised 20 armed bandits and arrested three suspects at Jambrini Village in Maru Local Government Area of Zamfara.
The Deputy Director, Army Public Relations, Col. Muhammad Dole, who made the disclosure in a statement issued in Kaduna on Saturday, said the troops of 1 Division Nigerian Army in the ongoing Operation IDON RAINI Corridor II conducted a raid on armed bandits’ hideouts in the general area of Jambrini village in the early hours of June 23 after which several camps were destroyed and 20 bandits were neutralised during the raid.
“Three bandits were also arrested while some escaped with gunshot wounds,’’ he added, maintaining that the troops remain determined and committed to frustrating banditry activities in the area of operation.
Four persons have been killed and six others injured in a suicide attack in Tunkushe – a village in Borno by Boko Haram insurgents.
The incident occurred in the early hours of Saturday when a male suicide bomber detonated his explosives among a group of residents sleeping in the open.
The Spokesperson for the Borno Police Command, DSP Edet Okon who confirmed the development said “At about 01:00hrs, gunmen suspected to be Boko Haram terrorists attacked Tunkushe village in Konduga L.G.A. of Borno State. Four persons were killed in the attack,” he said.
Senator Enyinnaya Abaribe has been arrested and detained by the Department of State Security (DSS) over alleged gunrunning as well as aiding the proscribed Indigenous Peoples of Biafra.
Chukwuma-Machukwu Ume (SAN), counsel to Abaribe who briefed journalists in Abuja on Saturday, said the allegations were contained in a search warrant dated June 22, 2018, and produced by the operatives who raided the lawmaker’s home in Apo Legislative Quarters in Abuja.
He quoted the warrant as directing the operatives to “focus and search for arms and ammunition and any other incriminating document, while the alleged crime was aiding and supporting a proscribed body i.e. IPOB. in an operation which lasted six hours.
Ume added, “Of all the 27 items seized and taken away, none could be all they wanted to see in terms of arms and ammunition or stored bags of ‘Ghana Must Go’ for sponsoring the said IPOB.
And stories from around the world:
The Swedes opened the scoring with a nifty chipped finish from Ola Toivonen in the 32nd and was followed with an equaliser in the 48th minute by Marco Reus. The Germans kept pressuring but could not break the Swedish backline and their situation became even more awry after Jerome Boateng got his marching orders for a second yellow.
However, Toni Kroos got the utmost redemption in perhaps the last kick of the ball by curling a beautiful free-kick from the right wing to hand them a victory that puts qualification in their hands ahead of their last game against South Korea in which they are expected to win.
Zimbabwe’s President Emmerson Mnangagwa has survived an apparent bomb attack at a rally in the city of Bulawayo.
The president was in Bulawayo, Zimbabwe’s second city and an opposition stronghold, to campaign for his Zanu-PF party ahead of nationwide elections taking place on 30 July.
A spokesman for Mr Mnangagwa said that while the president was unhurt, Vice-President Kembo Mohadi suffered a leg injury. Another vice-president, Constantino Chiwenga, received bruises to his face.
The exact number of people hurt by the blast remains unclear – and reports suggest it may be significantly higher. (BBC)
The U.S. Homeland Security Department said late Saturday the government has reunited 522 children separated from adults as part of a “Zero Tolerance” initiative and plans to reunite another 16 children over the next 24 hours.
The department said in a statement U.S. Customs and Border Protection expects a small number of children separated for reasons other than zero tolerance would remain separated, including if the familial relationship cannot be confirmed. (Reuters)
The Syrian army and allied forces pounded rebel-held areas of the southwest as thousands of civilians fled to safer opposition held areas along the border with Jordan and Israel, aid workers and rebels said.
They said hundreds of families with their personal belongings had arrived in the last two days in the towns of Tayba and Mataiyah, just a few kilometers from the heavily patrolled border with Jordan. (Reuters)
French President, Emmanuel Macron came out Saturday in support of financial sanctions against EU countries which refuse to accept migrants.
“We can not have countries that benefit hugely from EU solidarity and claim national self-interest when it comes to the issue of migrants,” he said at a press conference in Paris alongside Spain’s new Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez.
“I am in favour of sanctions being imposed in the event of no cooperation,” he said. (AFP)
Temidayo Taiwo-Sidiq is a Journalist, Political Analyst and Satirist with major interest in Nigerian Politics, Governance and Sports.
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