The Big 5: “Rascal doctors” on strike, No FEC meeting, and other top stories

Hello,

Good morning.

Here are the top 5 stories you should be monitoring today:

The Presidency has announced that the Federal Executive Council (FEC) meeting will not hold this week due to “inadequate time to prepare documents for the meeting.”

Minister of Information and Culture, Lai Mohammed, explained in a statement that “the two-day public holidays declared for the Eid-el-Kabir celebrations left little or no time to prepare for the weekly meeting.”

There have been controversy over how often the FEC meeting should hold, but President Buhari’s aide on Media and Publicity, Femi Adesina, said in an interview last month that “no law stipulates that the federal executive council (FEC) meeting must hold every week.”

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President Muhammadu Buhari was not aware that the planned rail line was going to pass through his hometown in Daura, Katsina, Minister of Transportation Rotimi Amaechi said on Monday.

He said President Buhari approved rail lines from Kano to Daura and Jibia local government areas of Katsina – but was initially unaware of the development.

“Transporting people from Benin Republic to Apapa seaport is not easy and to connect them from Benin Republic to Madakali; a border town in Kebbi, you need to pass through Daura and Jibia local government area,” he said.

The Managing Director of Nigeria Railway Corporation (NRC), Fidet Okhiria, also said the designs were done before Buhari became President.

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The Federal High Court, Abuja on Tuesday granted the request seeking to serve court processes on Nnamdi Kanu and the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB) through substituted service.

Justice B.O. Quadri gave the order following an ex-parte application by Richard Ndubuaku for an order of the court for substituted service of all the processes of the court on the defendants by publishing them in two national newspapers.

The court was also asked to make an order restraining Kanu and all members of IPOB from interfering, intimidating and harassing all registered and eligible voters in the November 18 Anambra election.

Meanwhile, Nnamdi Kanu has threatened to “expel” any IPOB member who gives money to the Nigerian police as bail.

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The minister of labour and employment, Chris Ngige has described the industrial action embarked on by resident doctors as an “act of rascality.”

He said the government was ‘surprised’ by the association’s action after an agreement was reached.

The resident doctors embarked on strike due to delay in payment of salary shortfalls experienced between January and May 2017 as well as outstanding shortfalls from 2016, poor working condition, among other things.

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In the United States, as Donald Trump’s administration announced its decision to repeal the DACA program that protected 800,000 young “undocumented” immigrants in America called Dreamers, criticism has continued to pour in, most recently from former president Barack Obama and tech billionaire Mark Zuckerberg.

Obama said the move is “contrary to our spirit, and lacking in common sense,” while Zuckerberg called it “cruel,” adding that it was a “sad day” for the U.S.

However, this seems to be the least of America’s problems as North Korea has threatened that it has “more gift packages” for the U.S., apparently making reference to the country’s latest and biggest nuclear weapons test.

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